Customs Act,1962
Act No : 52
Section :
Appellate Tribunal.
129.Appellate Tribunal. (1) The Central Government shall constitute an Appellate Tribunal to be called the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal consisting of as many judicial and technical members as it thinks fit to exercise the powers and discharge the functions conferred on the Appellate Tribunal by this Act. (2) a judicial member shall be a person who has for at least ten years held a judicial office in the territory of India or who has been a member of the Central Legal service and has held a post Grade I of that service or any equilent or higer post for at least three years, or has been an advocate for at least ten years. Explanation.-For the purposes of this sub-section,- (i) in computing the period during which a person has held judicial office in the territory of India, there shall be included any period, after he has held any judicial office, during which the person has been advocate or has held the office of a member of a trubinal or any post, under the union or a State, requiring special knowledge of law; (ii) in computing the period during which a person has been an advocate, there shall be included any period during which person has held a judicial office or the office of a member of a trubinal or any post, under the Union or a State, requiring special knowledge of law after he became an advocate. (2A) A technical member shall be a person who has been a member of the Indian Customs and Central Excise Service, Group A and has held the post of 1(Commissiner of Customs) or Central Excise or any equivalent or higher post for at least three years.) (3) The Central Government shall appoint one of the members of the Appellate Tribunal to be the President thereof. (4) The Central Government may appoint one or more of the Appellate Tribunal to be the Vice-President, or as the case be,Vice- Presidents, thereof. 3["(4A) The Central Government may appoint one of the Vice- Presidents of the Appellate Tribunal to be the Senior Vice-President thereof."]. (5) 3[ The Senior Vice-President or a Vice-President ] Shall exercise such of the powers and perform such of the functions of the President as may be delegated to him by the President by a general or special order in writing. 129A. Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal. (1) Any person aggrieved by any of the following orders may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order-- (a) a decision or order passed by the [Commissiner of Customs] as an adjudicating authority; (b) an order passed by the [Commissiner (Appeals)] under section 128A; (c) an order passed by the Board or the Appellate Collector of Customs under section 128, as it stood immediately before the appointed day; (d) an order passed by the Board or the [Commissiner of Customs] either before or after the appointed day, under section 130, as it stood immediately before that day: 4[Provided that no appeal shall lie to the Appellate Tribunal and the Appellate Tribunal shall not have jurisdiction, to decide any appeal in respect of any order referred to in clause (b) if such order relates to,- (a) any goods imported or exported as baggage; (b)any goods loaded in a conveyance for importation into India, but which are not unloaded at their place of destination in India,, or so much of the quantity of such goods as has not been unloaded at any such destination if goods unloaded at such destination are short of the quantity required to be unloaded at that destination; (c) payment of, drawback as provided in Chapter X, and the rules made thereunder: Provided further that"] the Appellate Tribunal may, in its descretion, refused to admit an appeal in respect of an order referred to in clause (b) or clause (c) or clause (d) were- (i) the value of the goods confiscated without option having been given to the owner of the goods to pay a fine in lieu of confiscation under section 125; or (ii) in any disputed case, other than a case where the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment is in issue or is one of the points in issue, the difference in duty involved or the duty involved; or (iii) the amount of fine or penalty determined by such order, does not exceed 15[fifty thousand rupees] 4(1A) Every appeal against any order of the nature referred to in the first proviso to sub-section (1), which is pending immediately before the commencement of section 40 of the Finance Act,1984 ( 21 of- 1984), before the Appellate Tribunal and any matter arising out of or connected with such appeal and which is so pending shall stand tran- sferred on such commencement to the Central Government and the Central Government shall deal with such appeal or matter under section 129DD as if such appeal or matter were an application or a matter arising out of an application made to it under that section."] 10["(2) The [Commissiner of Customs] may, if he is of opinion that an order passed by- (a) the Appellate [Commissiner of Customs] under section 128, as it stood immediately before the appointed day, or (b) the [Commissiner of Customs] (Appeals) under section 128A, is not legal or proper, direct the proper officer to appeal on his behalf to the Appellate Tribunal or, as the case may be, the Customs and Excise Revenues Appellate Tribunal established under section 3 of the Customs and Excise Revenues Appellate Tribunal Act, 1986, against such order."] (3) Every appeal under this section shall be filed within three months from the date on which the order sought to be appealed against is communicated to the Collector of Customs, or as the case may be the other party preferring the appeal. (4) On receipt of notice that an appeal has been preferred under this section, the party against whom the appeal has been preferred may notwithstanding that he may not have appealed against such order or any part thereof, file, within forty-five days of the receipt of the notice a memorandum of cross-objections verified in such manner as may be specified by rules made in this behalf against any part of appealed against and such memorandum shall be disposed of by the Appellate Tribunal as if it were an appeal presented within the time specified in sub-section (3). (5) The Appellate Tribunal may admit an appeal or permit the filing of a memorandum of cross-objections after the expiry of the relevant period referred to in sub-section (3) or sub-section (4), if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not presenting it within that period. 15["(6) An appeal to the Appellate, Tribunal shall be in such form and shall be verified in such manner as may be specified by rules made in this behalf and shall, in the case of an appeal made on or after the 1st day of June, 1993, irrespective of the date of demand of duty and interest or of levy of penalty in relation to which the appeal is made, be accompanied by a fee of,- (a) where the amount of duty and interest demanded and penalty levied by any officer of customs in the case to which the appeal relates is one lakh rupees or less, two hundred rupees; (b) where the amount of duty and interest demanded. and penalty levied by any officer of customs in the ease to which the appeal relates is more than one lakh rupees, one thousand rupees: Provided that no such fee shall be payable in the case of an appeal referred to in sub-section (2) or a memorandum of cross-objections referred to in sub-section (4)."]
