In Excise Appeal No.70281 of 2018 -CESTAT- CESTAT (Allahabad) dismisses appeal due to appellant's failure to appear for hearing
Member Sanjiv Srivastava (Technical) [09-08-2023]

Read Order: Hello Mineral Water (P) Ltd v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Noida-1

Chahat Varma

New Delhi, August 22, 2023: The Allahabad bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal recently dismissed the appeal of Hello Mineral Water (P) Ltd. (appellant), due to the appellant's failure to appear for the hearing.

Briefly stated, in the matter at hand, there was a lack of representation on behalf of the appellant during the proceedings. The matter had been scheduled for hearings on multiple occasions, during which either the appellant or their counsel had chosen not to attend. On one specific date, a written request for an adjournment was submitted. However, no further requests for adjournment were received on subsequent dates.

The Tribunal noted that according to the proviso to Sub Section 1A of Section 35C of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the CESTAT cannot provide adjournments to a party during the appeal hearing more than three times. Additionally, if an adjournment was granted, valid reasons for the adjournment needed to be documented in writing.

The Tribunal referred to the case of Ishwarlal Mali Rathod v. Gopal [LQ/SC/2021/3045], where the Supreme Court had emphasized that the process of adjudication should not be hindered by excessive adjournments and a lack of diligence in dealing with the matter.

The Tribunal also referred to Rule 20 of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1982, which addresses the action to be taken when the appellant defaults in appearing for the hearing of the appeal. According to this rule, if the appellant does not appear on the scheduled day of the hearing or on any other adjourned date, the Tribunal has the discretion to either dismiss the appeal for default or proceed to hear and decide it on its merits.

Therefore, the appellant’s appeal was dismissed in terms of Rule 20 of the CESTAT Procedure for non-prosecution.