Sampark Industries Limited Vs Commissioner of Central Goods And Services Tax (Allahabad High Court)
Summary: The Allahabad High Court allowed the appeal filed under Section 35-G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 174 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017, against the order of the Customs Excise and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal, Allahabad in Appeal No.71262 of 2018 dated 13.11.2025, whereby the Tribunal had dismissed the appellant’s appeal ex parte. The appeal raised the legal question whether, when no bench was sitting on 06.05.2025, the Tribunal could decide the appeal on 15.07.2025 without issuing notice of the latter date to the appellant. According to the Tribunal, the matter had been listed on several dates, including 12.03.2025 and 15.07.2025, and the appellant had not appeared on those dates. The appellant, however, stated that it had participated in the proceedings from 10.07.2019 to 12.03.2025 and that an order passed in its presence on 12.03.2025 had fixed 06.05.2025 as the next date. On 06.05.2025, no two-member bench was constituted in view of Order No.46 of 2025 dated 25.02.2025. The High Court considered Public Notice No.3 of 2019 dated 18.02.2019 and Rules 18(1) and 24 of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1982. It held that the Public Notice contemplated cases where orders fixing adjourned dates were uploaded, whereas no order was passed or uploaded on 06.05.2025 fixing the subsequent date. The Court rejected the Revenue’s submission that the appellant could have ascertained the next date from the weekly cause list, observing that there was no enabling Rule or practice requiring such extreme diligence. Since no hearing took place on 06.05.2025 and the matter could not be treated as adjourned under Rule 24, the Tribunal was required to issue fresh notice under Rule 18. As this was not done, the Tribunal’s order was passed without affording the appellant due opportunity of hearing. The High Court answered the question of law in the negative, set aside the Tribunal’s order dated 13.11.2025 and remitted the matter to the Tribunal for passing a fresh order. It clarified that it had not considered the manner of service of notice under Rule 18.
Background of the Appeal
The present appeal was filed under Section 35-G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 174 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017. It arose from the order of the Customs Excise and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal, Allahabad, in Appeal No.71262 of 2018, dated 13.11.2025.
