Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise & Custom
5th Floor, Hudco Vishala Building,
Bhikaji Cama Place, R.K. Puram,
New Delhi -110066
Dated the 25th August, 2011
To,
The Chief Commissioner of Customs / Central Excise (All)
Director General of Revenue Intelligence/
Director General of Central Excise Intelligence/
The Commissioner of LTU (All)
[email protected]
Sir/Madam,
Subject: Centralised payment of court fee, w.e.f. 1.9.2011, by the Directorate
of Legal Affairs in appeals filed before the Supreme Court– reg.
The existing practice of payment of court fee by the department, as appellant or
as respondent, in the appeals filed before the Supreme Court, is that the
respective field formation/directorate deposits it in a decentralized manner
thorough the Central Agency Section (Supreme Court). However, the decentralized
process of payment of court fee results in avoidable delays and thus causing
delays in filing of appeals or the counters, as the case may be.
2. This issue has been examined by the Board and a decision has been taken that
henceforth the process of payment of court fee in Supreme Court would be
centralized and the Directorate of Legal Affairs has been entrusted with this
work. In this regard, a separate fund has been sanctioned to Directorate of
Legal Affairs for the financial year 2011-12 under the head “Law Charges”. The
Directorate of Legal Affairs has, after working out the modalities, informed
that it is now in a position to start payment of court fee in a centralized
manner.
3. In this context, the undersigned is directed to say that in respect of
appeals filed on or after 1.9.2011 in Supreme Court the court fee would be
deposited by the Directorate of Legal Affairs, CBEC.
4. The trigger document for depositing court fee in respect of appeals filed by
department is the communication that is sent by the Legal or Judicial Wing of
the Board to the field formation wherein a direction to deposit the court fee is
also communicated. Under the revised procedure, w.e.f. 1.9.2011, direction for
depositing court fee in such cases would be issued by the Board to the
Directorate of Legal Affair.
4.1 As regards party appeals, the trigger document is the communication sent by
the Directorate of Legal Affairs to the field formation for depositing the court
fee. Under the revised procedure, Directorate of Legal Affair will not issue
such communications to field formations and instead would deposit the fee
itself.
5. It may however be noted that wherever a communication, as mentioned in paras
4 and 4.1 above, is issued to field formations before 1.9.2011, by the Board or
the Directorate of Legal Affairs, as the case may be, in such cases fee would be
deposited by the respective field formation/directorate as per the exiting
practice, irrespective of the date of actual filing of appeal.
6. It is requested that during the transition period from the existing practice
to centralized payment of court fee, a proper coordination may please be ensured
with the Directorate of Legal Affairs.
7. Any difficulty or doubt in the matter may please be brought to the notice of
Commissioner (Legal), CBEC, or the undersigned.
Yours faithfully,
(G.D. Lohani)
Director (Legal)
Ph: 011-26162152
F. No. 275/05/2011-CX.8A
Copy to: (1) Joint Secretary (Judicial Cell)-CBEC for implementation of above
instruction in respect of Civil Appeals.
(2) The Commissioner (Directorate of Legal Affairs)- for information and
necessary action for implementation of revised procedure for payment of Court
fee.
(3) Shri B. K . Prasad, Additional Government Advocate, Central Agency Section.
It is requested that w.e.f 1.9.2011 communication for depositing court fee may
please be sent to the Directorate of Legal Affair only.