Section 194A: Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal

9,81[194A. Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal.- (1) Any person or an officer of Customs aggrieved by any of the following orders may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such orders:- (a) a decision or order passed by an officer of Customs not below the rank of Additional Collector under section 179; (b) an order passed by the Collector (Appeals) under section 193; (c) an order passed under section 195; (d) an order passed in revision by the Director General Customs Valuation under section 25D: Provided that such appeal shall be heard by a special bench of at least two members one Judicial Member and one Technical Member, constituted by the Chairman; and (e) an appellate order or a quasi-judicial order passed by the Chief Collector of Customs under provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder provided that such appeal shall be heard by a special bench consisting of one technical member and one judicial member: Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may, in its discretion, refuse to admit an appeal in respect of an order referred to in sub-section (1) where- (i) the value of the goods confiscated without option having been given to the owner of the goods to pay a fine in lieu of confiscation under section 181; or (ii) in any disputed case other than a case where the determination of any question having a relation to rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment is in issue or is one of the points in issue, the difference in duty involved or the duty involved; or (iii) the amount of fine or penalty determined by such order does not exceed fifty thousand rupees. (2) Every appeal in the prescribed form and accompanied by the prescribed fee so specified in sub section (3) under this section shall be filed, within 82[forty-five days] from the date on which the decision or order sought to be appealed against is communicated to the Board or the Collector of Customs, or as the case may be, the other party preferring the appeal. (3) An application under sub-section (1) by a person other than an officer of customs, shall be accompanied by a fee of twenty thousand rupees in case of a company, and five thousand rupees in case other than a company. (4) The Appellate Tribunal may, upon application in writing, admit an appeal after the expiration of the period specified in sub-section (2) if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not presenting it within that period. (5) Notwithstanding that an appeal has been filed under this section, the assessed or adjudged amount of duty and taxes shall be payable, unless recovery thereof has been stayed by the Appellate Tribunal: Provided that on filing of application for grant of stay, the Appellate Tribunal may after affording an opportunity of being heard to the Collector having jurisdiction, for reasons to be recorded, stay the recovery of duty and taxes for thirty days, during which period a notice shall be issued to the respondents and after hearing the parties, order may be confirmed or varied as the Tribunal deems fit but stay order shall in no case exceed ninety days 82[: Provided further that such stay order shall be subject to furnishing of pay order or bank guarantee not less than twenty-five per cent of principal amount by the aggrieved person before the register of the Tribunal.] (6) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, where any reference or appeal was preferred with the approval of Collector of Customs by the officer of lower rank than that of the Collector and the reference or appeal is pending before an appellate forum or the Court, such reference or appeal shall be deemed to have been so filed by the Collector and for removal of doubt it is hereby declared the pending appeals shall not abate solely on this ground.]

Effective date: 1969-03-03

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