CESTAT bench at Ahmedabad
Another Bench of the Tribunal is to start functioning from Ahmadabad soon. The Tribunal was formally inaugurated on 11th October, 1982 but keeping in tune with the retrospective nature of the Revenue department, the notification fixing the appointed day for starting of the Tribunal from 11th October, 1982 came on 12th October, 1982 - a day after the inauguration!.
The Tribunal which started with its headquarters in New Delhi and zonal benches at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras had the 5th Bench at Bangalore in 2001. Now the 6th Bench at Ahmadabad is all set to function. The Ahmadabad Bench was long over due as Gujarat contributes a large chunk of revenue and obviously litigation. A Bench should have been started in Gujarat long ago. The President deserves all praise for expanding the Tribunal and taking it nearer to the litigants. But this expansion should continue. Hyderabad should be the next destination. With 8 Central Excise Commissionerates and two big custom houses, Andhra Pradesh deserves to have a bench of the Tribunal.
CESTAT Notification No. 1/2006, dated 3-3-2006