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2013 (5) TMI 98 - HC - CustomsPre deposit – Condition precedent for entertaining the appeal – Petitioner submits it cause undue hardship – The DRI Officers intercepted a container of the petitioner and proceeded against the petitioner by that the goods did not possess the basic shape of the shoe upper and more than 50% of the consignment was unusable/used waster and the actual value of the goods was declared wrongly by the petitioner accordingly penalty of Rs.50 lakhs was imposed u/s 114 and 114-A in addition to recovery of the drawback amount. Petitioner filed appeal before the first respondent-CESTAT, the CESTAT came to the conclusion to entertain the appeal on condition of pre-deposit to be made by the petitioner, as extracted above. Held that:- In this case, the CESTAT took into account all the above legal principles and was lenient in ordering only Rs.20 lakhs as pre-deposit as against Rs.50 lakhs, by waiving the balance penalty and the drawback amount in this regard, it is worthwhile to notice a decision of a Division Bench of this Court reported in Trendy Moods Vs. Customs, Excise and Gold Control [2008 (12) TMI 215 - HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS], wherein, the Division Bench, after taking into account the various decisions of the Supreme Court, for and against, ultimately came to the conclusion that the capacity of the appellant therein to pay the amount having been noticed and in the absence of any financial burden, it cannot be construed that there is an undue hardship for the appellant therein to resort to claim waiver of pre-deposit. Hence, it is not proper for the petitioner to approach this Court and challenge the impugned order of the CESTAT. Considering the submissions of the petitioner, he shall go before the first respondent-CESTAT and comply with the impugned order of the CESTAT, within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
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