Department’s Stay petition – Why?
An Assistant Commissioner passes an order confirming Central Excise duty demanded in the Show Cause Notice. The most normal thing to happen! On appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals), quashes the order of the Assistant Commissioner. The Department appeals to the Tribunal and also files a stay petition. What is the effect of the stay petition?
The Tribunal recently in , held,
if the operation of the impugned order is stayed it would enable the department to recover the confirmed demand from the assessee, which cannot be normally ordered.
But has not the order of the Assistant Commissioner merged with that of the Commissioner (Appeals)? So if the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) is stayed, there is still no order to enforce. So the Departmental stay petitions are really an exercise in futility. But why are still stay petitions filed by the Department? There seems to be a strong urge to help the consultants collect some fees! Most often, the Department works overtime to help the consultants.