- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The appellant filed an appeal to the Appellate Collector under Section 35 of the central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, on 7/1/1982 against the order contained in letter dated 23/11/1981 read with letter dated 2/7/1981 of the assistant Collector, central Excise, Dhanbad. The appeal was dismissed by the Appellate Collector as time-barred by an order dated 25/1/1982. The appellant then preferred an appeal to the tribunal which has been dismissed taking the view that the Appellate Collector had no power to condone the delay. Hence, this appeal by special leave.
(3.) The objection based on limitation arose because the proviso to sub- section (1 of Section 35 of the Act enabling the Collector to condone the delay in filing the appeal for sufficient cause was inserted with effect from11/10/1982 while in the present case the appeal to the Collector was filed and decided prior to that date when no such power was contained in Section 35 of the Act. This is the view accepted by the tribunal.;