Overanxious Prosecution - Addl Sessions Judge slams ST Department - trivial and frivolous Litigation
IN this bizarre case, one Surender Pal Singh Chadha stood a surety for Rs. 10 lakhs to an accused in a Service Tax prosecution case. The accused absconded and the surety is now responsible. His liability was Rs. 10 lakhs. However due to his old age and non-earning, he requested for some leniency and the Court asked him to deposit a penalty of Rs. 8 lakhs instead of the surety amount of Rs. 10 lakhs. He deposited Rs. 5 lakhs immediately and requested for some time to deposit the balance. In the next hearing he pleaded for some more leniency and the CMM reduced the penalty to Rs. 7 lakhs instead of Rs. 8 lakhs.
The Service Tax Department was greatly aggrieved and filed a revision petition with the Additional Sessions Judge on the ground that the CMM had no jurisdiction or power to review and/or recall his own order. (wisdom acquired from appeals in the Tribunal).
The Additional Sessions Judge noted that the Magistrate has powers to remit portion of penalty under the bond even after passing the final order and before recovery of total amount and he dismissed the revision petition.
However before parting with the case, he observed his anguish and serious concern over the ST Department's over anxious behaviour in moving frequently to higher courts on trivial and frivolous issues.
He observed that by filing such frivolous and vexatious petitions, the precious time of the court and money of the common people of the nation had been wasted. Though on this action of the petitioner, refrained from imposing costs upon the petitioner, he warned the petitioner to refrain itself from involving in such litigations with the individuals in future failing which heavy costs/penalties shall be imposed upon it.
In this case, the accused was charged with collecting and not paying to the Department Service Tax to the tune of Rs. 9 crores.
The Department is after the surety and that too for a paltry sum of one lakh rupees. How much money and time did they waste on this trivial trial? And this happened right under the nose of the Board in Delhi.