Appellate stages :

Under Chapter VIA of the Central Excise Act, 1944 both assessee and Department have been conferred with a right of three stage remedies against the orders passed under Central Excise Act and Rules. Briefly, it consists of three stages of appeal two stages of revision and further appeal to Supreme Court. The three stages of Appellate Authorities are the Commissioner (Appeals), CESTAT and High Court.

In case of orders passed by officers lower than the rank of Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner of Central Excise, the first appeal lies to the Commissioner (Appeals) and there from to the Appellate Tribunal and then to High Court and finally to the Supreme Court. Where the order of the Tribunal does not relate to determination of rate of duty or value of goods, an appeal is made to the High Court under sections 35G, instead of appeal to Supreme Court. In cases where the order-in-original is passed by a Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner of Central Excise, appeal lies directly to the Appellate Tribunal.

As per the provisions of section 35 read with sections 35B, 35E, 35EE, 35G and 35L of the Central Excise Act, any person aggrieved by the order passed by the Central Excise Officer, can file an appeal to the following authorities:-

	Order passed by	Appellate Authority
1	All officers upto & including Additional Commissioner	Commissioner (Appeals)
2	Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner or Commissioner (Appeals)	CESTAT, except in case where the 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;
3	Commissioner (Appeals)	Revision application to Central Government (in matters relating to rebate of duty on exports, export without payment of duty, loss of goods in transit and processing loss). No further appeal.
4	CESTAT	Supreme Court (matters relating to valuation and rate of duty)
5	CESTAT	High Court (Other than matters relating to valuation and rate of duty)
6	High Court	Supreme Court