Case Law Details
Nava Raipur Atal Nangar Vikas Pradhikaran Vs Union Of India (Chhattisgarh High Court)
Chhattisgarh High Court held that waiver of mandatory pre-deposit under section 35-F of the Central Excise Act 1944 not accepted. However, alternative prayer to grant extension of time limit for pre-deposit accepted and three months further time is granted.
Facts- Post adjudication, Principal Commissioner, Central Tax and Central Excise, Raipur vide order dated 18.12.2020 passed an order demanding service tax of Rs.134,83,58,448/- for the relevant periods with interest u/s. 75 of the Finance Act, 1994 and penalty u/s. 78 of the Act. Aggrieved with the order passed by the adjudicating authority, petitioner preferred an appeal before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi. As the petitioner has not deposited the requisite pre-deposit in terms of Section 35-F of the Central Excise Act 1944 read with Section 83 of the Act, information letter was issued to the petitioner intimating that mandatory deposit as envisaged under Section 129-E of the Customs Act. 1962 read with Section 35-F of the Act of 1944 has not been adduced. Aggrieved with the issuance of letter/notice dated 16.04.2021, petitioner has filed this petition.
Conclusion- I am not inclined to accept this prayer made by learned counsel for the petitioner of waiver of mandatory pre-deposit and, therefore, the prayer made by learned counsel for the petitioner is rejected.
However, considering the alternate prayer made by learned counsel for the petitioner for extension of time for depositing the amount of pre-deposit before the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal is concerned, though in this petition only the notice/information of defect is put to challenge and no subsequent order is placed on record, considering the submission of learned counsel for petitioner of facing difficulties during Covid-19 Pandemic period, with a view to provide an opportunity to contest the appeal on merits, I am inclined to allow the alternate prayer made by learned counsel for the petitioner and extend the time for mandatory deposit.
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