Commissioner Of Central Excise vs. M/S.Neesa Infrastructure LTD.

Held

The Court held that permission to withdraw the appeal, as prayed for by the appellant, should be granted. The reasoning was based on the appellant's submission that they had received instructions to withdraw the appeal in light of revised monetary limits for filing tax appeals as per CBIC instructions dated 22.08.2019. The Court granted the permission, disposing of the appeal as withdrawn. However, the Court also provided a conditional liberty to the appellant to seek revival of the appeal if there was any error in the computation of the tax effect or if the CBIC instruction dated 22.08.2019 was not applicable for any reason. The ratio is that appeals can be withdrawn based on revised departmental monetary limits, subject to conditions for revival if the basis for withdrawal is found to be erroneous.

Facts

The Commissioner of Central Excise, Ahmedabad-North, filed a tax appeal before the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad. The appeal was against M/s. Neesa Infrastructure Ltd. The appellant's counsel submitted a note stating that based on written instructions from the Assistant Commissioner (Legal), CGST & CX, Ahmedabad-North, and in light of CBIC instructions dated 22.08.2019 revising the monetary limit for filing tax appeals, the appeal was to be withdrawn. The counsel requested permission to withdraw the appeal.

Key Issues

1. Whether the appellant, the Commissioner of Central Excise, should be permitted to withdraw the captioned tax appeal. This issue turns on the applicability of CBIC instructions dated 22.08.2019 regarding revised monetary limits for filing tax appeals. The appellant argued that as per the instructions received from the Assistant Commissioner (Legal) and the aforementioned CBIC instructions, the appeal was to be withdrawn. The respondent, M/s. Neesa Infrastructure Ltd., did not record any argument in the judgment.