86. APPEALS TO APPELLATE TRIBUNAL.

(1) Any assessee aggrieved by an order passed by a Commissioner of Central Excise under section 84, or an order passed by a Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) under section 85, may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order.

(2) The Board may, if it objects to any order passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise under section 84, or the Commissioner of Central Excise may, if he objects to any order passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) under section 85, direct the Central Excise Officer to appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against the order. 

(3) Every appeal under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be filed within three months of the date on which the order sought to be appealed against is received by the assessee, the Board or by the Commissioner of Central Excise, as the case may be.

(4) The Central Excise Officer or the assessee, as the case may be, on receipt of a notice that an appeal against the order of the Commissioner of Central Excise or the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) has been preferred under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) by the other party may, notwithstanding that he may not have appealed against such order or any part thereof, within forty-five days of the receipt of the notice, file a memorandum of cross-objections, verified in the prescribed manner, against any part of the order of the Commissioner of Central Excise or the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals), 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 the period.

(6) An appeal to the Appellate Tribunal shall be in the prescribed form and shall be verified in the prescribed manner and shall, except in the case of an appeal referred to in sub-section (2) or a memorandum of cross-objections referred to in sub-section (4), be accompanied by a fee of two hundred rupees.

(7) Subject to the provisions of this Chapter, in hearing the appeals and making orders under this section, the Appellate Tribunal shall exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure as it exercises and follows in hearing the appeals and making orders under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (1 of 1944).