- (1.) Against the order of the Tribunal dated 2-12-2014 granting waiver from pre-deposit of the executed liability and staying the liability during the pendency of the appeal the Central Excise Department has filed the present appeal under Section 35G Central Excise Act, 1944 contending that the interim order passed by the Tribunal was in violation of the third proviso to Section 35C(2A) of the Act, which was inserted by the Finance Act, 2013. For facility the third proviso to Section 35G of the Act is extracted hereunder: "Provided also that where such appeal is not disposed of within the period specified in the first proviso, the Appellate Tribunal may, on an application made in this behalf by a party and on being satisfied that the delay in disposing of the appeal is not attributable to such party, extend the period of stay to such further period, as it thinks fit, not exceeding on hundred and eighty five days, and in case the appeal is not so disposed of within the total period of three hundred and sixty five days from the date of order referred to in the first proviso, the stay order shall, on the expiry of the said period, stand vacated." The contention of the learned counsel for the Department is that the Tribunal has committed a manifest error in granting unconditional stay which the statute does not permit. It was contended that the interim order, if any, would be operative in the first instance for a period of 185 days, which can only be extended upto maximum period of 365 days upon an application being filed by the assessee.
(2.) We find that a large number of appeals are filed by the Department against the interim order passed by the Tribunal against the order extending the stay order and in all these appeals the common ground urged is that the Tribunal has no power to pass stay order unconditionally or extend the stay order beyond 365 days.
(3.) A further prayer was made by the learned Counsel for the Department that in the alternative, a direction should be issued to the Tribunal to decide the appeal within a stipulated period. No data has been shown by the Department as to how many appeals are pending before the Tribunal or how many Benches of the Tribunal are functioning.;