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Section35B
The Central Excise Act, 1944

Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal

In force From 28 Feb 1944 Act 1 of 1944 As on 16 Oct 2026

Act 1 of 1944 Ministry Finance Enacted 24 Feb 1944 In force 28 Feb 1944 Instruments 21

Section 35B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 deals with appeals to the Appellate Tribunal. 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 [Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise] as an adjudicating authority; The Act came into force on 28 Feb 1944.

1[35B. 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 2[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise] as an adjudicating authority;

(b) an order passed by the 3[Commissioner (Appeals)] under Section 35-A;

(c) an order passed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of 1963) (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as the Board) or the Appellate 3[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise under Section 35, as it stood immediately before the appointed day;

(d) an order passed by the Board or the 4[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise], either before or after the appointed day, under Section 35-A, as it stood immediately before that day:

5[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) a case of loss of goods, where the loss occurs in transit from a factory to a warehouse or to another factory, or from one warehouse to another, or during the course of processing of the goods in a warehouse or in storage, whether in a factory or in a warehouse;

(b) a rebate of duty of excise on goods exported to any country or territory outside India or on excisable materials used in the manufacture of goods which are exported to any country or territory outside India;

(c) goods exported outside India (except to Nepal or Bhutan) without payment of duty;

6[(d) credit of any duty allowed to be utilised towards payment of excise duty on final products under the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder and such order is passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) on or after the date appointed under Section 109 of the Finance (No.

2) Act, 1998:]

Provided further that the Appellate Tribunal may, in its discretion, refuse to admit an appeal in respect of an order referred to in clause (b) or clause (c) or clause (d) where--

(i) in any disputed case, other than a case where the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of excise 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

(ii) the amount of fine or penalty determined by such order, does not exceed 6[two lakh rupees].

7[(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 47 of the Finance Act, 1984, before the Appellate Tribunal and any matter arising out of, or connected with, such appeal and which is so pending shall stand transferred on such commencement to the Central Government, and the Central Government shall deal with such appeal or matter under Section 35-EE as if such appeal or matter were an application or a matter arising out of an application made to it under that section.]

8[(1B) (i) The Central Board of Excise and Customs constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of 1963) may, 7[by order], constitute such Committees as may be necessary for the purposes of this Act.

(ii) Every Committee constituted under clause (i) shall consist of two 8[Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise or Chief Commissioner of Central Excise] or two 12[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise], as the case may be.]

9[(2) 10[The Committee of Commissioners of Central Excise may, if it is] is of opinion that an order passed by the Appellate 11[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise] under Section 35, as it stood immediately before the appointed day, or the 3[Commissioner (Appeals)] under Section 35-A, is not legal or proper, direct any Central Excise Officer authorised by him in this behalf (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as the authorised officer) to appeal 13[on its behalf] to the Appellate Tribunal against such order.]

14[Provided that where the Committee of 16[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise] differs in its opinion regarding the appeal against the order of the Commissioner (Appeals), it shall state the point or points on which it differs and make a reference to the jurisdictional 17[Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise or Chief Commissioner of Central Excise] who shall, after considering the facts of the order, if is of the opinion that the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) is not legal or proper, direct any Central Excise Officer to appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order.

Explanation.--For the purposes of this sub-section, "jurisdictional Chief Commissioner" means the 17[Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise or Chief Commissioner of Central Excise] having jurisdiction over the adjudicating authority in the matter.]

(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 18[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise], 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 the prescribed manner against any part of the order 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 crossobjections 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.

19[(6) An appeal to the Appellate Tribunal shall be in the prescribed form and shall be verified in the prescribed manner and shall, 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 Central Excise Officer in the case to which the appeal relates is five lakh rupees or less, one thousand rupees;

(b) where the amount of duty and interest demanded and penalty levied by any Central Excise Officer in the case to which the appeal relates is more than five lakh rupees but not exceeding fifty lakh rupees, five thousand rupees;

(c) where the amount of duty and interest demanded and penalty levied by any Central Excise Officer in the case to which the appeal relates is more than fifty lakh rupees, ten 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).

(7) Every application made before the Appellate Tribunal,--

(a) in an appeal 20[* * *] for rectification of mistake or for any other purpose; or

(b) for restoration of an appeal or an application, shall be accompanied by a fee of five hundred rupees:

Provided that no such fee shall be payable in the case of an application filed by or on behalf of the 21[Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise] under this sub-section.]]

Section 35B, The Central Excise Act, 1944 (Act 1 of 1944).

Cross-references

Extracted from the operative text of the enactments themselves. Every destination below exists in our corpus.

This section refers to

  1. s. 35 Appeals to Commissioner (Appeals)

Related judgements & precedents

These are some judgments that construed this section, and hold precedence value. They hold authority on how to read, interpret and use this section.

  1. Union of India & ORS vs Sandeep Goyal

    Supreme Court of India 26 Sep 2014 Binding (Supreme Court Constitution Bench) Reportable 2014 (9) SCC 1

    Court's Decision & Legal Precedent

    Parliament has power to transfer statutory appellate jurisdiction from High Courts to tribunals only when deciding on questions of fact or mixed questions where tribunal composition and conditions ensure it is no less efficacious than court replaced. However, Parliament cannot transfer power to decide substantial questions of law relating to diverse fields of law from superior courts to tribunals as this would violate separation of powers and basic structure of Constitution requiring judicial independence. Tribunals substituting superior courts must have members with judicial qualifications and tenure equivalent to High Court judges, appointed through process ensuring independence from executive, and must not have provisions for reappointment or retention of lien with government.

    On this section: Historical provisions for references to High Courts and appeals from tribunals examined

    Read the full order on eCourts India

  2. Union of India vs I. T. A. T. Bar Association

    Supreme Court of India 26 Sep 2014 Binding (SC) - Constitution Bench judgment Reportable 2014 (13) SCC 1

    Court's Decision & Legal Precedent

    Parliament has the power to transfer appellate jurisdiction from High Courts to an alternative court or tribunal, but in doing so it must ensure that the newly created court or tribunal conforms with the salient characteristics, standards, and safeguards of the court sought to be substituted. When the jurisdiction transferred involves deciding substantial questions of law (a core function historically performed by superior courts), the tribunal must possess member qualifications equivalent to High Court judges, provide equivalent independence safeguards, appointment procedures conforming to constitutional standards, and adequate tenure protection. The tribunal cannot be placed under control of the Government (which is invariably a party to tax disputes). The NTT Act fails these requirements and is therefore unconstitutional.

    On this section: Reference and appellate jurisdiction of tribunal and High Court were examined

    Read the full order on eCourts India

The holding above is the ratio decidendi as extracted from the judgment by eCourts India, reproduced unaltered — it is a rendering of the court's reasoning, not a substitute for its words. Read the order itself before relying on it.

Made under this section, and citing it

13 instruments state that it was made under this provision — the power to make it comes from here, so a change to any of them changes what this section requires in practice. Newest first.

Another 8 instruments name this provision in its title or its text without being made under it.

All subordinate legislation

Questions about Section 35B

What have the courts held on Section 35B of the Central Excise Act?

Union of India & ORS vs Sandeep Goyal (26 Sep 2014) is the leading judgment on this section among those set out below: Historical provisions for references to High Courts and appeals from tribunals examined. Another 1 judgment on this section is set out below, all of them from the Supreme Court.

How do I find court cases under Section 35B of the Central Excise Act?

In judgments and charge sheets this section is written several ways, and each form finds a different set of orders. These search the full text of every order eCourtsIndia holds, best matches first: Central Excise Act 1944 35B, section 35B Central Excise Act 1944, section 35B of the Central Excise Act. People searching for it also type section 35b of central excise act. Each opens the full list of orders on eCourtsIndia, where it can be narrowed by court, year and outcome. 2 reported judgments on this section are set out on this page, beginning with Union of India & ORS vs Sandeep Goyal (26 Sep 2014).

What should I read with Section 35B of the Central Excise Act, and has it changed?

Its own text turns on section 35 (Appeals to Commissioner (Appeals)), so none of them can safely be read on its own. The rules and notifications made under it are where it actually bites, and there are 13: most recently Notification No. 01/2010 - C.E(NT) (2010), then Notification No. 02/2010 - C.E(NT) (2010), and 11 more.

When did Section 35B of the Central Excise Act come into force?

Section 35B of the Central Excise Act, cited as Central Excise Act 1944 35B, came into force on 28 Feb 1944, having been enacted on 24 Feb 1944. It is in force as at the date shown on this page.

Other sections of this Act

Source and method. Compiled from the enactments of Parliament and of the State legislatures as published on India Code, and republished together with commentary and other original matter under section 52(1)(q)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957. Structured, cross-referenced and maintained by eCourtsIndia. Text as in force on 16 Oct 2026. This page is not a substitute for legal advice.