Kind attention is invited to Board's instructions as contained in Circular No. 313/29/97-CX (F.No. 390/107/97-JC) dated 6.5.97 and as reiterated in Circular No. 332/48/97-CX dated 9.9.97 on the above subject.

2.     Of late, it has come to the notice of the Board that some of the proposals for filing civil appeals against Tribunal Orders received from the Commissioners do not contain legible copies of (i) Show-Cause Notices; (ii) Orders in Original (iii) Orders in Appeal; (iv) Board's instructions referred to and (v) copies of relied upon judgements referred to in the CEGAT Orders. Sometimes, not only the aforesaid documents are illegible, but also last few lines of the same are missing. Not only it seriously affects proper examination/ scrutiny of the proposals but filing of appeal, if decided, gets sometimes badly delayed, as considerable time has to be spent in obtaining the legible copies of the documents. (For filing civil appeals in the Supreme Court even slightly illegible copies of the documents/ handwritten documents are not acceptable to the Advocates in Supreme Court).

3.     You are aware of the very strict view which Apex Court has taken in the past where appeals were not filed in time and Department's requests for condonation of delay have not be entertained. You are, therefore, advised to impress upon the Commissioner and his senior officials processing proposals for filing civil appeals to not only submit their proposals to reach the Board well within 2 weeks of the receipt of the order, but they should also ensure that clearly legible copies of the relevant documents are sent to the Board while forwarding their proposals. Any delays/ commissions in this regard on their part is likely to be viewed seriously and responsibility will be fixed if this leads to filing of appeal beyond the stipulated period of sixty days.