Monitoring of Court Cases - CBEC is serious
IN some cases CATs/Courts have imposed penalty on the Government on account of delay in filing or non-filing of reply affidavits in respect of the OAs/CWPs filed in the CATs/Courts despite ample opportunity having been given to the Government to file the reply affidavits. In some cases, the CAT/Court has also issued direction on forfeiture of right to file reply because of undue/prolonged delays in filing reply affidavits.
In such situations what does the Board do? It takes a serious view. And now also the Board has followed the established tradition and taken a serious view.
CBEC also gives certain instructions on how to deal with this problem.
1. All the Chief Commissioners/Directors General will designate a nodal officer for dealing with and monitoring of the court cases, not below the level of Joint Commissioner, who will ensure that timely action in filing reply affidavits is taken in consultation with the Govt. Counsel(s).
2. In case any action is required to be taken on the part of the Board, the same will be communicated to the Board well in advance along with copies of all the relevant documents available with the Commissionerate.
3. All the Chief Commissioners should put in place a mechanism for review and monitoring of action required to be taken in CAT/Court cases on fortnightly basis at the level of Commissioner and Chief Commissioner/DG.
4. Suitable instructions in this regard should be issued by each Chief Commissioner/DG, with a copy to the Board, duly indicating therein the name, address, Telephone No., Mobile No. and Email ID of the nodal Officer designated for the purpose.
5. The designated nodal officers should keep in touch with the concerned officers in the Board dealing with the subject matter of the Court Case so as to ensure that no undue delay/lapse takes place in filing reply affidavits and in effectively defending the interest of the Govt of India before the Court of law.
Board wants a report in a week. They will get it after a couple of reminders.