Home Case Index All Cases Central Excise Central Excise + AT Central Excise - 2014 (9) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2014 (9) TMI 807 - CESTAT NEW DELHIMaintainability of appeal before Commissioner (Appeal) - Determination of date of receipt of order in original - Bar of limitation - condonation of delay - Held that:- There is no dispute that the Order-in-Original against which the appeal had been filed before the Commissioner (Appeals) had been dispatched by Registered AD and there is also no dispute about receipt order by the appellant. The dispute is only about the date of receipt. While according to the appellant, they received this order on 01.06.2000, according to the Department this order should be deem to have been received within one week from the date of dispatch which according to the Commissioner (Appeals) is the normal period of delivery of latter by the Postal Authority. In my view, this presumption of the Commissioner (Appeals) is totally incorrect and there is no base for the same. If an order or letter has been despatched by the Department to an assessee by Registered Post AD, in term of the provisions of Section 114 of the Indian Evidence Act, it can be presumed to have been received by the assessee, and if the assessee claims that he did not receive the order/letter, the burden of proof is on him. even if the date of receipt is assumed to be on 14.04.2000 i.e. within a weeks time from the date of the order i.e. 07.04.2000, since the appeal had been filed on 14.09.2000, there would be delay of only two months which was within the condonation limitation and the Commissioner (Appeals) should have heard the appellant’s plea for delay and should not have been dismissed the appeal as time barred on the ground that the period of delay is the beyond his power of condonation. - Matter remanded back - Decided in favour of assessee.
|