Early Hearing application for an appeal already disposed of
IN this column, we had recently reported the CESTAT decision in J. Square Steels (2012-TIOL-1738-CESTAT-Mum) wherein the Bench dismissed the early hearing application filed by the Revenue on the ground that the appeal itself had been dismissed almost three months ago in the presence of the AR.
DDT discussed this curious phenomenon of filing Early Hearing applications in respect of dismissed/disposed of appeals with an officer in the Headquarters of a Commissionerate.
And this is what the officer quipped -
"In the monthly meetings with the Chief Commissioner, we are required to provide our Commissioner with data on anything and everything - right from the number of new assessees to the number of registrations surrendered. Recovery of arrears statement has lost its sheen and the in-thing is pending show-cause notices and pending appeals. If there is an appeal pending with the Commissioner(A), our Commissioner calls him up to enquire whether he intends to dispose it this winter or will it be the coming summer! However, in the matter of appeals pending before the CESTAT, phone calls do not work because of ‘network problems' and hence "early hearing" applications are filed. It is rarely that the status of the pending appeals is updated in our reports - it is not an easy task and, therefore, anything shown in our reports as pending gets the same treatment viz. an application for Early Hearing is filed before the CESTAT. And it is no surprise that the CESTAT mocks us for filing such Early Hearing applications for the simple reason that the appeals in question have been already disposed of or dismissed. We take it in a sporting spirit for the simple reason that we have got an answer for the supposedly pending appeal - that it has already been disposed of/dismissed...whatever! - as they say straight from the horse's mouth!"
And who pays for this mockery?
And we come across another such case wherein the Tribunal observed; "the application for early hearing of the appeal is filed in usual manner without verifying the records".
In this case, the CCE, Pune-III shares the honours!
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