Sanjib Banerjee, J. - (1.) The Court : The respondents are not represented even at the second call.
(2.) The appeal is directed against an order dated April 7, 2016 passed on a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.
(3.) By filing the petition in the year 2004, the appellants herein, in effect, wanted to dislodge an order passed by the Customs authorities on July 14, 1987. It was not as if the Writ Court was the first choice of the appellants herein. The appellants claimed that they were made aware of the order dated July 14, 1987 for the first time sometime in 2002 whereupon they sought to prefer an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) who refused to entertain the same. The appellants did not directly assail the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) by way of a writ petition to this Court, but carried the Commissioner's order to the Appellate Tribunal. The Appellate Tribunal dismissed the appeal on the ground that a copy of the order dated July 14, 1987 had been sent under registered post with acknowledgement due by the Customs authorities and is deemed to have been received by the appellants. The other ground that weighed with the Appellate Tribunal was that despite the appellants' assertion that they sought an adjournment of the matter on July 13, 1987, the appellants apparently chose not to make any enquiry as to what happened in their matter till the year 2002. The Writ Court refused to extend its beneficial jurisdiction to the appellants on the ground of the conduct of the appellants, particularly, the delay in approaching the Court. The Writ Court refused to believe that the appellants were not aware of the order of July 14, 1987 till the year 2002 or that the appellants could have been unaware of such order despite their diligence.;