(1) Any person including the Sales Tax Department, aggrieved by—

(a) any decision or order passed by a Collector or an Additional Collector of Sales Tax under sections 11, 36 or 45;

(b) any order passed by the Collector of Sales Tax (Appeals) under section 45B; and

(c) any order passed by the Board or the Collector of Sales Tax under section 45A, may, within sixty days of the receipt of such decision or order, prefer appeal to the Appellate Tribunal.

(2) The Appellate Tribunal may admit an appeal preferred after the period of limitation specified in sub-section (1) if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not presenting it within the specified period.

(3) The appeal shall be accompanied by a fee of one thousand rupees paid in such manner as the Board may prescribe.

(4) The Appellate Tribunal, after giving the parties to the appeal, an opportunity of being heard may pass such orders in relation to the matter before it as it thinks fit:

Provided that when any such order amounts to an interim order staying the recovery of tax, such order shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of six months following the day on which it is made unless the case is finally decided, or the interim order is withdrawn by the Tribunal earlier:

Provided further that such interim order or orders, as the case may be, shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a total period of six months following the day on which the first interim order is made, unless the case is finally decided, or the interim order is withdrawn by the Appellate Tribunal earlier.

(5) The Appellate Tribunal shall send a copy of its order disposing the appeal to the appellant and to the concerned Officer of Sales Tax.

(6) All appeals relating to the Sales Tax Act, 1951, pending before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal at the commencement of the Finance Act, 1997 shall stand transferred for disposal to the Appellate Tribunal.

(7) Order under this section shall be passed within sixty days of filing of appeal or within such extended period as the Tribunal may, for reasons to be recorded in writing fix, provided that such extended period shall in no case exceed ninety days.

(8) Subject to the provisions of this Act or any other law for the time being in force, the Appellate Tribunal shall have power to regulate its own procedure and the procedure of the Benches thereof in all matters arising out of the exercise of its powers or of the discharge of its functions, including the places at which the Benches shall hold their sittings.

(9) The Chairman or any other member of the Appellate Tribunal authorized in this behalf by the Chairman may, sitting singly, dispose of any case which has been allotted to the bench of which he is member where —

(a) in any disputed case, other than a case where the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of sales tax or to the value of taxable goods for purposes of assessment is in issue or is one of the points in issue, the difference in tax involved or the tax involved does not exceed five hundred thousand rupees; or

(b) the amount of fine or penalty involved (***) does not exceed five hundred thousand rupees.