While dismissing an appeal filed by the Commissioner of Central Excise & Service Tax, Kolhapur, a division bench of the Bombay High Court observed that in view of Section 35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain appeals wherein the “rate of duty” or “value of goods” is the subject matter.
During the course of hearing, the respondent-assessees had raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of this appeal under Section 35G (CF Act) against the impugned Order. They submitted that a Special Leave Petition has already filed by them before the Supreme Court against the same order/issues and the same is admitted. The “Rate of Duty” and “Value of Goods”, the basic issues, are pending in the Supreme Court.
Analyzing the provisions of section 35G of the Central Excise Act, the bench comprising Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and Anoop V. Mohtait said that “it is clear from the provisions itself that no appeal lies to the High Court from the Order passed by the Appellate Tribunal being the order relating among other things, to the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of excise and/or to the value of goods for the purposes of amendment.”
Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed with liberty to the department to approach the available appellate forum against the impugned order/issue.
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