ORDER
P.K. Desai, Member (J)
1. The present appeal is directed against the order in appeal bearing No. 1346/88 BCH dated 17-3-1988, rejecting the appeal filed by the appellants as time barred.
2. When the matter was called out, Shri C. M. Gupte, the partner of the clearing Agents submitted that their clients had submitted the papers only a couple of days back and the Sr. partner is away. He, therefore, requested for an adjournment. Considering the short point involved, it is not considered necessary to grant adjournment and hence proceeded to decide the matter.
3. Heard Shri Mondal and perused the documents.
4. From the documents it appears that the appeal before the Collector (Appeals) was initially filed on 5-6-1986, which was defective to some extent and that the defect memo was issued on 8-7-1986 returning them with the appeal. The corrected appeal which was received back by the authorities only on 4-1-1988. Taking the date 4-1-1988 as the date for filing the appeal, the Collector (Appeals) has held that the appeal was hit by limitation by 1 year 6 months and has rejected the same.
5. The appeal initially filed was within stipulated period of six months, though it was defective in nature. It was required of the Department to issue defect memo and get the defects rectified. It was not necessary for them to return the appeal in toto. The date of initial presentation has to be taken as the date of filing the appeal. Considering the same, the appeal is within time and the order passed by the Collector (Appeals) holding the appeal as time barred, under the circumstances does not appear to be proper and requires to be set aside. I, therefore, set aside the order of the Collector (Appeals) and remand the case back to him for deciding the appeal on merits.