Err for revenue

By Vijay Kumar

Revenue authorities make a mockery of the adjudicating system with their ‘fear’ of consequences that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an assessee to get a favourable order from a Revenue officer. They are all so afraid that they will be under the scrutiny of CBI, Vigilance, bosses, if they pass an order favourable to the assessee that they take the easy route. Err on the side of revenue. Many of them openly tell you, “you win in appeal” If I am going to win in appeal, why can’t I win at the very first stage?

All the officers who pass favourable orders to Revenue are not really revenue loving patriots. Most of them are actually traitors. There are many orders written only in such a way that they cannot sustain appellate scrutiny. But these officers cannot be charge sheeted, because their orders are in favour of government and you can’t expect somebody to pay you for passing an order against him, Can you?

Though officers are scared to pass orders against revenue, actually in practice, very few officers are charge sheeted on account of their orders. And even the few who had to face disciplinary proceedings could succeed by citing the Supreme Court case of ZB Nagarkar.

A little about the Nagarkar case:

ZB Nagarakar was a Commissioner of Central Excise. In an order passed by him, he demanded duty, confiscated the goods, but did not impose penalty. The department gave him a notice proposing to initiate disciplinary proceedings for mis conduct. He challenged the notice in the CAT which dismissed his application. He went to the High Court; there also same fate. In the mean time he was transferred out and posted in the National Academy. He went to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held

1. It was his responsibility to impose penalty. To that extent, his order was wrong.

2. But he cannot be punished for passing a wrong order. The department’s remedy lies in appealing against the wrong order, not punishing the adjudicating officer

3. If the government thought that he was a wrong doer, posting him to the academy is a gross mistake. A post in the academy should be an honour, not a punishment.

This case was a big protection for the rare officer passing a judicial order. But now the Supreme Court has ruled that Nagarkar is bad law.

See our Supreme Court case “Duli Chand” today