CESTAT Allahabad Bench - High Court Summons Revenue Secretary
THE persistent monitoring by the High Court on the establishment of the Allahabad Bench of the CESTAT continues. The CESTAT at Allahabad is temporarily functioning from a heritage building belonging to the Central Excise Department. Last week, the matter again came up before the High Court.
In the previous hearing, the Court had directed the Under Secretary in the Department of Revenue to file an affidavit and be present in the court. The Court found that one Under Secretary filed an affidavit and another attended the court. The High Court observed,
The Court fails to fathom as to how this kind of tactics can be adopted by the Department of Revenue in making perfunctory compliance of the orders of the High Court. The person who has sworn the affidavit should have appeared before the Court but he has not appeared. No reason has been shown as to why Sri S. Bhowmick, Under Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance could not appear before the Court. Non appearance amounts to contempt of the order of the Court. The respondent was required to appear in order to assist the Court since no affidavits were being filed and the Court was not getting any assistance from their Advocates. Earlier the affidavits that were supposed to be filed were defective and were not filed. Such delaying tactics adopted by the Department and not allowing the business of the Court to function in a proper manner is deplorable .
On accommodation for the Tribunal, the Court observed,
This petition was filed in April, 2015. One of the prayers was for establishment of a permanent Bench of the CESTAT at Allahabad. More than 08 months have elapsed and the Ministry of Finance has not even been able to locate a place for establishing a permanent Bench of CESTAT at Allahabad. On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance has the audacity to issue an Office Memorandum on 09.12.2015, allocating the entire red building only for a period of one year on a temporary basis to allow the functioning of the CESTAT at Allahabad. On one hand, the Ministry of Finance has chosen to fix a time period of one year which has started running from 09.12.2015, and on the other hand, they have taken no steps to establish a permanent Bench. Further, they have chosen to ask the Court to give a reasonable time to vacate the premises. The Central Government had taken a decision in the year 2013 for establishing a Bench of CESTAT at Allahabad. More than two years have elapsed and no steps has taken. Even after the filing of the writ petition, the exercise, if any, appears to be a perfunctory exercise .
The High Court directed as:
(1) We direct the Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi to appear before the Court along with Sri S.Bhowmick, Under Secretary, Department of Revenue on 05.01.2016 and explain the hurdles, which they are facing in not establishing a permanent Bench of the CESTAT at Allahabad.
(2) The onerous duty of establishing a Bench of CESTAT is upon the CESTAT. They have not done their duty on their part seriously. We, accordingly, direct the Registrar,CESTAT to also appear before the Court and apprise the latest status in this regard as to how they have pursued the matter with the appropriate authorities.
(3) The Commissioner, Central Excise, Allahabad will ensure that the possession of entire red building is handed over to the Tribunal on or before the next date and an affidavit to that extent is filed before the Court.
DDT had extensively covered this issue.
1. -13 05 2015: The Allahabad High Court directed the Union of India to make the Allahabad Bench of CESTAT functional w.e.f. 21-7-2015 and to list fresh matter before the said Bench.
2. -20 05 2015: The Allahabad High Court gave certain directions regarding accommodation for the Tribunal.
3. -14 08 2015: The High Court gave certain directions to the District Magistrate regarding accommodation for the Tribunal.
4. -24 08 2015: The High Court gave certain directions inter alia that from the month of October, 2015 the Tribunal should function on a regular basis and not one week in a month.
5. DDT 2698-06 10 2015: The CESTAT Bench officially inaugurated at Allahabad on 1st October 2015.
6. -20 11 2015: The High Court gives further directions on accommodation.
7. -23 11 2015 : The High Court observed, "the Ministry of Finance is not doing enough for setting up the permanent establishment of CESTAT. Nothing has been brought on record to indicate what steps they have taken subsequent to our order.