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2013 (12) TMI 822 - AT - CustomsRestoration of appeal - Appeal dismissed for want of clearance from the empowered Committee of Secretaries - Held that:- appellant was given reasonable opportunity to produce clearance from the Committee on Disputes in terms of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in ONGC case [1991 (10) TMI 58 - SUPREME COURT OF INDIA]. Ultimately, their appeal came to be dismissed along with a few other appeals on the ground of non-production of clearance from the Committee. This dismissal order was passed on 30-4-2008 and the same also indicated the aforesaid judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in ONGC case - Committee had granted clearance to HPCL in [2009 (5) TMI 683 - CESTAT, NEW DELHI] to pursue their appeal before the CESTAT and they, after obtaining such clearance on 14-2-2008 from the Committee, filed an application for restoration of the appeal on 6-2-2009 after nearly one year and this delay in the filing of the restoration application was not satisfactorily explained by the appellant to the Tribunal. We have not found in the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. case any purport to invalidate the scores of the orders passed by the Tribunal or by various High Courts on the question of maintainability of appeals for want of clearance from the Committee on Disputes. If such interpretation as being given by the learned counsel is given to the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., it will have the effect of opening a Pandora’s box which in our view, is not intended in the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Electronics Corporation Ltd. In our view, the recall of the 1992 and 1994 judgments in ONGC case has only prospective effect from 17-2-2011. Right from December 2007 till 17-2-2011 (over three years), the appellant apparently had been pursuing their application before the Committee on Disputes but unsuccessfully. In this scenario, our Final Order dated 30-4-2008 insofar as it pertains to the present application must be intact - Restoration of appeal denied.
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