CESTAT Revamp – Only Regular matters on three Days a week
IT had been a universal complaint that precious time of the courts is eaten up in short matters, stay, pre-deposit etc, with hardly any time for Regular Matters. The President of the CESTAT, Justice R.M.S. Khandeparker has come with a radical change.
Come 1st August, three whole days in a week - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be marked exclusively for final hearing. Mondays and Fridays will be for short matters.
As per an order issued by the President, last week, after hearing the short matters, if time permits on Monday or Friday, the same would be utilized for hearing the regular matters. He has directed the Registry to enlist cases as follows.
Bench | cases |
|---|---|
Mr. D.N. Panda, Member (Judicial) and Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Member (Technical) | Customs matters pertaining to the years 2006 and prior thereto as well as all Excise regular matters pertaining to the year 2006 |
Justice R.M.S. Khandeparker , President and Mr. M. Veeraiyan , Member (Technical) | Excise regular matters pertaining to the years 2005 and prior thereto and Service Tax regular matters of the years 2006 and prior thereto |
In relation to the Single Member Bench matters, all final hearing regular matters should be listed on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and short matters to be listed on every Monday and Friday. All the regular matters of the year 2007 and prior thereto should be listed on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and every expedited matters should be listed on every Monday and Friday to be heard after the Board regarding the short matters is completed.
All mentioning matters, in case of Division Bench, irrespective of whether it is of Excise matter, Customs matter or Service Tax matter, same shall be before the Division Bench of Justice R.M.S. Khandeparker , President and Mr. M. Veeraiyan , Member (Technical).
This arrangement will continue initially for a period of two months, namely, in the month of August and September, 2009 or till further orders.
A good step indeed worth emulating by all other Courts/Tribunals. Let us hope the results prove that the system works well.