Order passed by wrong Review Committee - Technical error, rectifiable!
NETIZENS may recall the CESTAT decision in Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai vs. Gudel India Pvt. Ltd. (2011-TIOL-101-CESTAT-Mum) where the issue was whether an appeal filed on the strength of Review order passed by a "wrong" Committee of Commissioners could be considered proper and legal. Suffice to say that the CESTAT had thrown out the Revenue appeal as non-maintainable. Unabashedly, Revenue had gone back to the CESTAT with a fresh appeal based on an order passed by the "correct" Committee and an application for Condonation of Delay of 697 days only to meet the same fate of dismissal. See 2012-TIOL-810-CESTAT-Mum.
In this scenario, it would be interesting to see the recent order passed by the CESTAT in the case of CCE, Raigad vs. Preeti Logistics where the Bench has held that such an error is rectifiable since technical in nature. Kindly see 2012-TIOL-983-CESTAT-MUM . Incidentally, the respondent was not represented during the hearing.