Can Tribunal Rectify a Rectified Order?
THE Tribunal rectifies an order for an apparent record. Later the Tribunal finds that the rectification was wrong. Can the rectified order be rectified?
Under Section 254(1) of the Income Tax Act, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) passes an order. Under Section 254(2), the Tribunal can, on an application for Rectification of Mistake (ROM), to rectify a mistake apparent on record, amend any Order passed under Section 254 (1).
Under Section 129B(1) of the Customs Act, the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) passes an order. Under Section 129B(2), the Tribunal can with a view to rectifying any mistake apparent from the record, amend any order passed by it under sub-section (1).
There are identical provisions in the Central Excise Act.
Now what happens if the Tribunal realizes that the order passed under Section 254(2) is also wrong. Can this order be further amended?
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal felt that it had inherent powers to rectify a rectified order and it can rectify even without an application from either of the parties.
If that be so, can the re-rectified order be rectified again and if so how many times. Any way the High Court has saved the trouble of such repeated rectifications by holding that the Tribunal can rectify only an order passed under Section 254 (1) and not under Section 254 (2).
We reported this High Court order in 2007-TIOL-193-HC-ALL-IT. In our analysis of the order on 18.4.2007, we mentioned, "This would equally apply to CESTAT."
The same issue reached the CESTAT recently. The Tribunal observed that there is no provision for filing ROM application against the order of the Tribunal deciding a ROM application. 2015-TIOL-1594-CESTAT-MUM.