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January 2016

2015 (40) STR 519 (Tri.-Del.) Mannat Farms vs. CCE & ST, Ghaziabad

By Puloma Dalal
Jayesh Gogri
Mandar Telang Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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The discretion to condone delay is not a personal discretion of the Appellate Commissioner but is discretion of law and should be exercised appropriately as law requires.

Facts
The appellant preferred an appeal to Commissioner (Appeals) with a delay of 29 days beyond the period of limitation. Since the Commissioner (Appeals) is granted discretionary powers to condone delay upto 30 days, the appellant pleaded to admit the appeal citing the reason that his wife was ill and provided medical certificate to this effect. The Commissioner (Appeals) dismissed the appeal observing that the wife of appellant had no specific role to play in day-to-day affairs of the firm and nothing was brought on record to show that illness of wife had affected the business of the firm.

Held
Having regard to the peculiar facts of the case, condonation of delay should be liberally considered. The discretion to condone delay is not a personal discretion of the Commissioner and the same should be exercised properly as dictates of law require. It was perverse for the Appellate commissioner to hold that care of a spouse and need to attend to her was not a relevant criterion. Accordingly, order was set aside.

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