No Appeal Before Commissioner of Customs When Correctness of Order has been Examined by High Court: CESTAT [Read Order]

The New Delhi Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), observed that no appeal can be filed before the Commissioner of Customs when correctness of order has been examined by the High Court.

The Commissioner of Customs (ACC Export), New Customs House, New Delhi has filed this appeal to assail the order passed by the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) on the appeal filed by the department to assail the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner rejecting the refund application filed by M/s. Intex Technologies (India) Ltd under section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962 for refund of duty of Rs. 1,47,16,78,904.21/-.

Intex is in the business, inter alia, of import and sale of electronic products such as mobile phones in India. As part of its business activities, it imported mobile handsets, including cellular phones, during the period between 30.03.2015 to 14.07.2015 and filed Bills of Entry for home consumption and paid additional duty of customs by way of scrips in terms of section 3(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, 19757 at the rate of 13.5% of the value of the said goods.

The said refund application was filed by Intex before the Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Refund), New Delhi in respect of the additional duty of customs paid under section 3(1) of the Tariff Act on the imports made during the period from 30.03.2015 to 14.07.2015. Intex also submitted a certificate of a Chartered Accountant with the refund application that certified that the amount of refund claimed was shown in the books of accounts as amount due and the same had not been passed on to the buyers of the goods.

The High Court allowed the Writ Petition filed by Intex by judgment and order dated 08.11.2016 and directed the Assistant Commissioner to pay the appropriate refund amount together with applicable interest till the date of the actual payment within three weeks from the date of the said order.

A Two-Member Bench of the Tribunal comprising Justice Dilip Gupta, President and P Anjani Kumar, Technical Member observed that “Thus, when the appeal was filed by the department before the Commissioner (Appeals) against an order the correctness of which stood decided against the department by the Delhi High Court, the order dated 26.06.2019 passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) on 26.06.2019 would be without jurisdiction.”

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