(1) Any person objecting to an order passed by the Appellate Authority under sub-section (5) of section 55 or any officer empowered by the Government in this behalf may within a period of 60 days from the date on which the order was served on him, in the manner prescribed, appeal against such order to the Appellate Tribunal:

Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may admit an appeal presented after the expiration of the said period if it is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause for not presenting the appeal within the said period:

Provided further that a dealer other than those whose cases involving disputed amounts have been settled, may, after the expiration of the said period, even if the appeal filed has not been admitted previously due to any reason, present a fresh appeal before the Appellate Authority on or before 30th September, 2023.

Provided also no appeal shall lie in cases where suo moto revision proceedings under section 58 is pending.

Provided also that where an order of the assessing authority which has become appealable under section 55 with effect from 1st April, 2017 by virtue of the Kerala Finance Bill, 2017, and on which the Joint Commissioner of State Tax had passed orders under section 57 and revision against such orders are pending under section 59, such revision shall stand transferred to the appellate tribunal and the tribunal shall consider the same as if it is an appeal filed before it.

(1A) Where the appellant remits a pre-deposit amount of 10 per cent of the disputed amount of tax, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5 Crores, the recovery proceedings for the balance amount shall be deemed to have stayed till disposal of the appeal:

Provided that the pre-deposit amount, if any, already remitted under section 55 shall be adjusted towards the amount to be remitted under this sub-section:

Provided further that, the pre-deposit amount, if any, paid in excess of the amount referred to in this sub-section shall not be refunded till the disposal of appeal:

(2) The officer authorised under sub-section (1) or the person against whom an appeal has been preferred, as the case may be, on receipt of notice that an appeal against the order of the Appellate Authority has been preferred under sub-section (1) by the other party may notwithstanding that he has not appealed against such order or any part thereof, file within 30 days of the receipt of the notice, a memorandum of cross objection, verified in the prescribed manner, against any part of the order of the Appellate Authority and such memorandum shall be disposed by the Appellate Tribunal as if it were an appeal presented within the time specified in sub-section (1).

(3) The appeal or the memorandum of cross objections shall be in the prescribed form and shall be verified in the prescribed manner and, in the case of an appeal preferred by any person other than an officer empowered by the Government under sub-section (1), it shall be accompanied by a fee of one thousand rupees.

(4) In disposing of an appeal, the Appellate Tribunal may after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard either in person or by a representative,-

(a) in the case of an order of assessment or penalty,-

(i) confirm, reduce, enhance or annul the assessment or penalty or both;

(ii) set aside the assessment and direct the assessing authority to make a fresh assessment after such further enquiry as may be directed; or

(iii) pass such other orders as it may think fit; or

(b) in the case of any other order, confirm, cancel or vary such order:

Provided that if the appeal involves a question of law on which the Appellate Tribunal has previously given its decision in another appeal and either a revision petition to the High Court against such decision or an appeal to the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court thereon is pending, the Appellate Tribunal may defer the hearing of the appeal before it, till such revision petition to the High Court or the appeal to the Supreme Court is disposed of.

(5) Where as a result of the appeal any change becomes necessary in the order appealed against, the Appellate Tribunal may authorize the assessing authority to amend such order accordingly and on such amendment being made any amount paid in excess by the appellant shall be refunded to him or the further amount of tax, if any, due from him shall be collected in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

(6) Notwithstanding that an appeal has been preferred under sub-section (1), the tax shall be paid in accordance with the order of assessment against which the appeal has been preferred:

Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may, in its discretion, give such directions as it thinks fit in regard to the payment of the tax before the disposal of the appeal, if the appellant furnishes sufficient security to its satisfaction in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed:

Provided further that where the Appellate Tribunal has passed an order of stay in an appeal it shall dispose of the appeal within a period of one hundred and eighty days from the date of such order:

Provided also that if such appeal is not so disposed of within the period specified in the second proviso the stay order shall stand vacated after the expiry of the said period.

(7) The Appellate Tribunal may, on the application of the appellant or the respondent review any order passed by it under sub-section (4) on the basis of the discovery of new and important facts which after the exercise of due diligence were not within the knowledge of the applicant or could not be produced by him when the order was made:

Provided that no such application shall be preferred more than once in respect of the same order.

(8) The application for review shall be preferred in the prescribed manner and within one year from the date on which a copy of the order to which the application relates was served on the applicant in the manner prescribed, and where the application is preferred by any person other than an officer empowered by the Government under sub-section (1), it shall be accompanied by a fee of rupees three hundred.

(9) Every order passed by the Appellate Tribunal under sub-section (4) or sub-section (7) shall be communicated in the manner prescribed to the appellant, the respondent, the authority on whose order the appeal was preferred, the Joint Commissiner of State Tax concerned, and the Commissioner of State Tax.