Litigation Management - CBEC Instructions
CBEC has observed that in many litigation cases pending before various Courts, Government interests are not being defended with adequate diligence. Board suggests to the Chief Commissioners:
(i) Each Commissioner under CBEC should maintain an updated list of cases pending in various Courts.
(ii) Pending cases should be monitored weekly at the level of the Commissioner or Commissioner equivalent officer. Commissioner may, in turn, regularly apprise the Chief Commissioner on the important matters pending before the Courts, and their progress.
(iii) There should be no justification in the ordinary course for the government to seek adjournments. Government Counsels should be advised to ensure that, adjournments are not sought as a matter of routine. Delay entails its own costs, and it also reflects poorly on the efficiency and ability of the Government to respond in time. The number of adjournments sought/obtained on behalf of the Government may be looked into and corrective action taken immediately.
(iv) Every Commissionerate should have a nodal officer of adequate seniority, to act as a coordination point for all Court cases.
(v) The Commissionerate should be in regular touch with all its Counsels and should advise them to use all means of communication including mobile phone applications like SMS, etc after every hearing for indicating the outcome/progress in the matter.
(vi) The Commissionerate may also regularly monitor the cases where the Government interest has not been adequately defended or which have been poorly handled and consequently lost, and send a report to the Board through Chief Commissioner for examination on whether any corrective action is required. The Board, if it considers necessary will send a report to the Ministry of Law and Justice.
(vii) In all cases, where position stated in the past affidavits needs to be modified for various reasons, a review may quickly be undertaken to consider whether additional affidavit is required to be filed.
What is going to happen? A few forests are going to be wiped off. Thousands of copies of this instruction will be printed and distributed among all the officers. What is the Board going to do if these instructions are not followed?
Incidentally a Senior Counsel for the Department recently told me that the Commissioners don't pay his bills and lakhs of rupees are outstanding. Some Commissioners would want the counsels to go and beg them to clear their bills. How will you defend your cases if you don't pay your lawyers? The board should give instructions to the Chief Commissioners to ensure that the lawyers appearing for the department are paid promptly. If you refuse to pay at least the peanuts, you will not get even the monkeys to work for you.
CBEC Instruction in F.No.275/13/2015-CX.8A., Dated March 11 2015