Commissioner (Appeals) – The office needs to be institutionalised
THERE is unfortunately a lot of stigma attached to the post of Commissioner (Appeals). Who gets appointed as Commissioners (Appeals)? Normally one with no pulls or one who is not wanted around for often suspect reasons. Several posts of Commissioner (Appeals) are lying vacant. Why? Simply there are no takers. This is one post where you are required to work – at least sign a couple of orders a day, but has no perks attached, comparable to a territorial Commissioner. A Commissionerate can certainly run or even run better without a Commissioner but the appellate unit cannot function without a Commissioner (Appeals). I know at least one commissionerate where no Commissioner has been posted for the last five years! Recently we reported a case where the stay petition of the party could not be disposed of because there was no Commissioner (Appeals) , but the Assistant Commissioner went on to attach the goods from the assessee. The harried assessee (a major PSU) had to knock at the doors of the High Court to save its skin temporarily from the Revenue.
One of the reasons put forth by the Customs and Central Excise Department for creating a large number of posts of Commissioners (Appeals) was that these Commissioners would clear the pending cases and the state coffers would be overflowing with the payments made by the litigants. The good Government accepted this preposterous plea and agreed to promote a large number of officers.
But the promised queue outside banks by the relived appellants eager to make payments consequent to appellate orders remained a mirage. Why? One reason could be there were not many appellate orders! Why? There are no Commissioners (Appeals). Why? Commissioners (Appeals) do not have half the glamour of a jurisdictional Commissioner with his retinue of staff and vehicles. The Commissioner (Appeals) is always dependent on the jurisdictional Commissioner for everything ranging from paper to protocol and no protocol officer worth his smart uniform will waste his talents on a Commissioner (Appeals); with the result there are not many takers for these posts and several of the newly created posts are lying vacant which makes life more difficult for the assessees as getting stay also has become difficult. And a determined government is keen to collect arrears - even by transferring a Commissioner (Appeals) as Commissioner(arrears)!
This first appellate authority of the department is so neglected and disrespected that many of the Commissioners show scant respect not only to the Commissioners (Appeals) but also to their orders. Unless this office is institutionalised and strengthened, the quality of justice in the department is bound to suffer and retard further.