CESTAT New Benches - Let us not have ad-hoc Benches - Have Benches only after you have infrastructure in place
THE Karnataka High Court had in directed the Government to set up additional Benches of the CESTAT by 03/06/2013. Of course nothing happened by 03/06/2013. Addressing a meeting in Hyderabad on 8.6.2013, Justice Goda Raghuram, the CESTAT President said that the proposal to start a CESTAT Bench at Hyderabad is seven months pregnant but he was not sure of a safe delivery in nine months.
In October 2013, the Union Cabinet approved setting up of six additional benches of CESTAT - three at the existing locations of New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and three new Benches at Chandigarh, Allahabad and Hyderabad and even the notifications were issued in November 2013.
It seems they are all set to open new Benches at Hyderabad, Allahabad and Chandigarh and additional benches at Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. But with what infrastructure? Are new Members appointed, support staff selected, buildings hired, furniture and computers bought?
We should not fall victims to the practice of opening new offices on an ad-hoc basis with hardly any infrastructure and with temporary staff drawn from existing offices. They will remain ad-hoc for the next fifty years.
We should plan at least twenty years in advance and take into consideration the technological advances and physical needs.
Today for example a Bench of the CESTAT has about 20,000 cases pending which means 40,000 sets of files in the Tribunal and 20,000 sets with the Departmental Representative. First of all they should have enough space to store all these files. When the existing benches were started, nobody thought of this possibility that they need space to store the files.
At least now, file management should be computerised, so that files are easily traceable and retrievable.
We need better court rooms with enough space for the lawyers and litigants. The Court Rooms should have horse-shoe tables and Public Address Systems. Today the Court Rooms look like classrooms. The Court hall should be IT enabled with the entire CESTAT premises wi-fi covered. In future we may have e-courts and the court halls should have facilities for video conferences and e-hearings. In the Modi-fied e-nvironment, physical presence of lawyers may not be necessary in the courts.
We need at least 30,000 sq.ft of space for each Bench of the Tribunal. There should be a library including a digital one with facilities for fax, Xerox, printing etc,. There should be a well furnished bar room. And above all enough well furnished toilet facilities for the Members, Counsels and others. It is unfortunate that in some Benches, the Members do not have attached toilets to their office rooms.
This is not a court dealing with petty criminals - this is a tribunal dealing with tax issues running into hundreds of crores - it deserves to be in better surroundings. And after all the Government collects fees for all appeals by the assessees and it should be required to provide reasonably good facilities. Our Settlement Commission has enviable infrastructure.
There is no point in running a Tribunal which has no money to pay for the postage for sending its hearing notices and orders; is in perennial debt to all service providers like cab service, telephone service, manpower etc,. What a shame it is for a taxi owner to refuse to provide a car for the Member to reach the Tribunal if his bills for the last eight months are not cleared. But this happens often and the Administration has to beg the cab operator to bear with them for a few more months. And this happens with routine regularity every year from the month of May.
If you really don't have money to run the Tribunal, please close it down rather than make it undergo this pathetic poverty.
And you know how much the Government spends on the Tribunal?
See the figures:
2011 -12
Rs. 15.69 Crores
2012-13
Rs. 16.72 Crores
2013-14
Rs. 17.14 Crores
So, the Government hardly spends a paltry sum of 20 Crores on the Tribunal and that is less than what CBEC spends on cars for its officials.
The addition of 6 more Benches will cost about Rs. 10 Crores which means the total expenditure on CESTAT will be about Rs. 30 Crores. And this is less than what a losing candidate in a Parliament election would spend.
The Government should allot at least Rs. 300 Crores for the CESTAT and until that happens there is no point in opening ramshackle Benches of the Tribunal in some concrete jungle.
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