- (1.) The appeal by the assessees arises from an order of the Central Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal Tribunal. The assessees in support of the appeal have raised the following questions of law: "1. Whether, in view of the fact that the appellants had never accepted the order of the Tribunal in respect of demand of pre-deposit of Rs.10 lacs and had agitated the matter upto the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Tribunal ought to have restored the appeals and decided the same on merits upon deposit of Rs.10 lacs made by the appellants on 23.1.2013 after dismissal of the SLP on 3.1.2013. 2. Whether, in absence of merger of the order of the Tribunal upon the dismissal of the SLP in limine by the Supreme Court on 3.1.2013, the Tribunal could have refused to exercise its jurisdiction to restore the appeal upon pre-deposit of Rs.10 lacs. 3. Whether, at any rate, the order dated 8.4.2013 results in complete miscarriage of justice inasmuch as the appellants have been non-suited for reason of taking recourse to the legal remedy against the order of the Tribunal requiring it to make pre-deposit of Rs.10 lacs."
(2.) The appellants had filed appeals before the Tribunal against an order of adjudication confirming a demand for excise duty in the amount of Rs.60.88 lacs together with interest and penalty. The Tribunal was moved in an application for waiver of pre-deposit. On 14 November 2011, the appellants were directed to deposit an amount of Rs.10 lacs within a period of eight weeks. Subject to the said deposit, a stay was granted. The appeals were dismissed on 22 February 2012 for non-compliance of the order of pre-deposit. The appellants filed a substantive appeal before this Court against the order of the Tribunal on the application for waiver. The appeal was dismissed by a Division Bench of this Court on 26 July 2012. A special leave petition was also dismissed by the Supreme Court on 3 January 2013. After the dismissal of the special leave petition, the appellants filed a review application which was rejected by the Division Bench on 19 September 2014.
(3.) In the meantime, the appellants deposited the amount as required by the order of the Tribunal dated 14 November 2011 on 23 January 2013 and moved the Tribunal in a miscellaneous application for restoration of the appeals. The Tribunal held that the order which had been passed by it on the application for stay was the subject matter of an appeal before this Court and when the appeal stood dismissed and, the special leave petition also having been dismissed, the Tribunal would have no jurisdiction to allow restoration. In this regard reliance was placed on the judgment of the Delhi High Court in Commissioner of Customs v. Lindt Exports, 2012 28 STR 216 (Del.), where it was held that once the order of the Tribunal had merged with the High Court's order and had attained finality, the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to entertain the application for restoration of the appeal.;