Legal principle

Where a fiscal statute provides a complete, self-contained hierarchy of statutory remedies, the High Court should not entertain an Article 226 writ petition that short-circuits the regular statutory appeal against a CESTAT order, and should instead relegate the assessee to the prescribed remedy.

Court decision

The High Court dismissed the writ petition, in favour of the Union of India, on maintainability grounds — without deciding the limitation, EODC, merits or constitutional validity questions — holding that against the CESTAT order a regular Central Excise Appeal lies to the High Court under Section 35G of the Central Excise Act on a substantial question of law, and granted the petitioner liberty to file such a regular appeal.

Facts

Mapaex Consumer Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. imported goods duty-free under Advance Authorisations/Advance Licences availing Notification No. 18/2015-Cus dated 01.04.2015, after executing bonds to fulfil the prescribed export obligation. The Department alleged failure to produce proof of fulfilment of export obligation within the stipulated period and issued a show cause notice proposing recovery of customs duty (amount of Rs. 27 [figure truncated in extract]) under Section 143 of the Customs Act, 1962, along with penalty. The Deputy Commissioner (Customs), ICD Mandideep, by Order-in-Original No. 14/AA/ICD/MDP/2022-23 dated 28.03.2023 confirmed the demand and imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000. The order was allegedly served on 04.04.2023 at the petitioner's old Bhopal premises, from which it says it shifted operations on 17.08.2022; the appeal filed on 05.03.2024 was dismissed as time-barred by the Commissioner (Appeals) on 21.10.2024, and CESTAT affirmed that dismissal on 24.11.2025 under Section 129B of the Customs Act.

Key provisions

• Section 128, Customs Act, 1962 — Appeal to Commissioner (Appeals)
• Section 129B, Customs Act, 1962 —  Orders of Appellate Tribunal
• Section 143, Customs Act, 1962 — Power to allow import or export on execution of bonds in certain cases