196A. (1) Any person aggrieved by any of the following orders may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order:-

(a) ¹[any decision or order passed by the Commissioner of Customs or Commissioner of Customs (Bond) or Director General (Duty Exemption and Drawback) or any officer of Customs equivalent to Commissioner of Customs], not being decision or order passed under section 82 or section 98; or

(b) an order passed by the Commissioner (Appeal) under section 193 as it stood immediately before the appointed day or under section 193A.

(2) The Commissioner of Customs may, if he is of the opinion that an order passed by the Commissioner (Appeal) under section 193 as it stood immediately before the appointed day or under section 193A is not legal or proper, direct the proper officer to appeal on his behalf to the Appellate Tribunal against such order.

²[(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 received by the Commissioner of Customs or, as the case may be, the other party preferring the appeal:

Provided that the President of the Appellate Tribunal may, if he is satisfied that the appellant has not been able to file an appeal within the aforesaid period of three months due to reasonable grounds, allow it to be presented within a further period of two months.]

(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 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 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.

(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 appointed day, irrespective of the date of demand or ³[duties, taxes] 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 ⁴[duties, taxes] and interest demanded and penalty levied by any officer of Customs in the case to which the appeal relates is one lakh Taka or less,⁵[three hundred Taka];

(b) where the amount of ⁶[duties, taxes] and interest demanded and penalty levied by any officer of Customs in the case to which the appeal relates is more than one lakh Taka,⁷[one thousand two hundred Taka]:

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).

⁸[(7) The Appellate Tribunal shall dispose of the appeal ⁹[within four years] from the date of its receipt.

(8) If the appeal is not disposed of within the time specified in sub-section (7), the appeal shall be deemed to have been allowed by the Appellate Tribunal.]