1999 (3) TMI 93

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..... that there may be number of circumstances by which an assessee is prevented from filing the appeal and taking away his right to file an appeal is violative of the right of the petitioner to carry on his business as even the tax which is levied may be without the authority of law itself for which the petitioner would have no remedy. 2Learned Counsel for the petitioner on the ground. of condonation of delay relied on the following judgments; State of Kerala v. E.K. Kuriyipe [1981 SUPP SCC 72] "The sufficient case for condonation of delay is a question of fact dependent upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case." Smt. Milavi Devi v. Dina Nath [1982 (3) SCC 366] "In case the appellant had sufficient cause for not filing .....

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..... n Co. Pvt. Ltd. v. Government of India [1993 (63) E.L.T. 626] "The expression `sufficient cause' in Section 35 and Section 35B of the Central Excise Act, will have to be interpreted in a meaningful manner so as to subserve the ends of justice." Kishanlal Meghraj Soni v. Collector of Customs [1992 (58) E.L.T. 530] "It is not necessary to hold that the appellant should have been vigilant during earlier period of limitation and same goes against the principle laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Katiji's case." 3.It is stated that in the case of ITC Ltd. and Another v. Union of India [1998 (101) E.L.T. 9 (S.C.) = 1998 (79) ECR 256 (S.C.)], the petitioners were permitted to file the appeal which were time barred and as such it is .....

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..... use the restrictions regarding limitations are provided under the provisions of Section 35 it cannot be considered to be violative of any provision of the Constitution. 5.I have considered over the matter. Right of appeal is a statutory right and therefore the Parliament has the power to put restriction on the exercise of such power. Simply because, the right of appeal cannot be exercised after the expiry of six months, the proviso cannot be considered as unreasonable. Under different statutes, different restrictions have been placed on the exercise of power to file the appeal. Certain legislative provision has put a condition of depositing the entire demand before filing of appeal while in others the requirement is to deposit the admit .....

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