Samrat Chatterjee Vs Union of India & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The writ petition challenged an order dated January 14, 2025 passed by the Appellate Authority under Section 85 of the Finance Act, 1994 read with Section 35F of the Central Excise Act, 1944, by which the petitioner’s appeal against the order-in-original dated April 18, 2024 was dismissed for non-compliance with the mandatory statutory pre-deposit requirement under Section 35F. At the outset, the Court corrected typographical errors in an earlier order regarding payment figures, replacing Rs. 1,41,910/- and Rs. 26,920/- with Rs. 1,52,046/- and Rs. 28,844/-.
The petitioner submitted that payments of Rs. 1,52,046/- and Rs. 28,844/- had been made to the CGST authorities for the same year and should have been treated as compliance with the statutory pre-deposit condition. The Court directed the CGST Department to file an affidavit clarifying the purpose of these deposits and the heads under which they were accepted. The affidavit filed on February 18, 2026 revealed that a total sum of Rs. 1,80,890/- had been deposited. It further stated that no statutory document mentioned the purpose of the payment and that the amount was not related to any outstanding declared liability in the petitioner’s service tax returns. The department stated that the reason for the payment was not known.
