Writ Petition Cannot be Filed Twice Against Same Dismissal Order: Delhi HC Rules in Favor of Customs [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a Writ Petition challenging the order passed by Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) on the ground that the said order was already dismissed by the High Court and the same order cannot be challenged twice.

The Petitioner, M/s Wide Impex, filed a Writ Petition challenging the order-in-original dated 31.01.2020 passed by the Office of Principal Commissioner of Customs (Import), ICD, Tughlakabad, New Delhi. Additionally, orders passed by the CESTAT mandating the payment of pre-deposit amount to seek appellate remedies were also challenged by the Petitioner.

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Counsels for the Petitioner, Anjali Jha Manish, Priyadarshi Manish and Aman Ahluwalia sought waiver of pre-deposit on the ground that ₹15 lakhs of pre-deposit out of the total ₹59,17,834 has already been encashed by the Customs department in terms of the bank guarantee.

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It was further submitted that the Petitioner was undergoing enormous financial difficulties and was unable to submit the pre-deposit amount. She also placed reliance on a number of decisions to support her contention.

Counsel for the respondents, R Ramachandran and Prateek Dhir submitted that the Petitioner had repeatedly undertaken before the appellate tribunal that they would pay the pre-deposit but had not paid the same.

A bench of Justice Pratibha M. Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta observed that a writ petition was already filed by the Petitioner against the same order dated 31.01.2020 seeking that the appeal which was dismissed for want of pre-deposit be heard on merits.

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It was further observed that the Appellate Tribunal had also passed several orders in the appeal filed by the petitioner wherein the petitioner had itself sought for reasonable time to deposit the pre-deposit amount.

In light of the circumstances, the bench observed that the Petitioner has again,  effectively sought to challenge the same dismissal order passed by the Appellate Tribunal despite such challenge being previously dismissed by the order by the Delhi High Court itself. Thus, it was held that the Petitioner cannot have a second round of litigation on the same issue.

Hence, the Writ Petition was dismissed. 

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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