Filing of appeals in the Supreme Court - Instructions regarding
forwarding of information on connected matters for proper defence of cases
Circular
No. 544 dated 6th September 2000
Please
refer to the instructions issued by the Board from time to time on scrutiny of
CEGAT's/ High Court's Orders by Commissioners and forwarding of proposals to the
Board for filing of civil appeals/SLPs. It has been observed that one long
standing problem faced by the Department is with regard to furnishing of up to
date information on the status of connected matters relied upon in the impugned
order/ Deptt appeal to the Court at the time of final hearing. Recently the
Learned A.G. and S.G. drew Finance Minister's attention to the fact that they
had to face embarrassment in one matter, is information relating to the
connected matter mentioned in the impugned order in our appeal could not be made
available to the court at the time of hearing. In this case CEGAT had relied on
a case without mentioning the citation and Commissioner had not forwarded copy
of the relied upon order which omission remained undetected till hearing as such
the advocate could not furnish either copy or status of the relied upon order to
the Court. The Supreme Court has also directed the Court Registry to henceforth
not admit our civil appeals SLPs unless full information in respect of connected
matters is provided by the Department.
Member (L&J) had occasion to examine the whole procedure relating to filing
of appeals in the Supreme Court, in this context, recently and it has been
decided, that, in addition to the various other steps being taken at the level
of the Board. a separate report on connected matters should be obtained with the
appeal proposals. Commissioners should ensure that henceforth whenever they
recommend filing of an appeal or SLP in the Supreme Court a separate report on
connected matters is also sent in the enclosed proforma along with the appeal
proposal. Information on connected matters would mean details and status of the
case/ cases referred to and relied upon by the Tribunal or Court iri1tle1mpugned
order, as well as the judgements of Tribunal/ High Courts or the Apex Court,
which are sought to be relied upon by the Department in support of their appeal.
All Officers should first verify the correctness of the citations incorporated
in the impugned orders, as well as applicability of these relied upon decisions
to the case i.e., to say, whether CEGAT has correctly applied the ratio of a
particular decision to the case under examination. After ascertaining the
correctness of the citation and applicability thereof it shall be the
responsibility of the Commissioner sending the appeal proposal to ascertain full
information about the status of the relied upon cases. i.e. to say whether any
appeal was filed against the said order/ orders, what was the outcome of such
appeal/appeals etc. Commissioners should ascertain this information from the
Commissioners concerned and furnish the same to the Board.
It
has been decided that henceforth Board would also be sending a copy of the list
of customs and central excise cases reflected in the Terminal List, issued by
the Supreme Court Registry in July each year, to all Chief Commissioners this
list reflects the position of cases that have already been admitted and are
likely to be listed for hearing in the Supreme Court during the year. Chief
Commissioners will coordinate with Commissioners in their jurisdiction to ensure
that the concerned officers locate the case files pertaining to cases in their
charge, go through them and ascertain the latest information in respect of
relied upon/ connected matters as well as any other development connected with
the case, so that the Departmental counsels can be adequately briefed before the
final hearing. A copy of the list has been forwarded to all Chief Commissioners
vide Board's F.No.390/194/2000-JC dated 30.08.2000. Chief Commissioners who have
not received the list should immediately get in touch with Joint Secretary
(Review) or Director (Review).
In
addition to the Terminal List forwarded to the Chief Commissioners, Board has
also forwarded a copy of list of matters pending in the Supreme Court as
ascertained from the Supreme Court Registry, vide Board's F.No. 390/195/2000-JC
dated 30.08.2000 to all Chief Commissioners. All Chief Commissioners should
correlate the position reflected in this list with their own lists of pending
cases. and in case there are certain cases which appear to be pending as per
their own list and do not figure in this list of cases obtained from the Supreme
Court Registry, particulars of such cases (including Board's File No. if any)
should be furnished at the earliest to the Joint Secretary (Legal) -in respect
of appeals against High Court's orders, and to Joint Secretary (Review)
regarding appeals against CEGAT's orders. In fact it has been noticed that the
figures of pendency as per Supreme Courts records and the figures as reported in
the MTR or to Legal Cell of the Board do not tally. They therefore have to be
reconciled by December 2090, latest.
Board
would henceforth be sending such lists twice a year to the Chief Commissioners
and Commissioners concerned should ensure that their data is updated in
accordance with pendency reflected in the Board's Office/ S.C. Registry and
discrepancies. if any, are reconciled as early as possible, if necessary by
deputing.
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