Illegal Publication still continues
DDT 817 - 04.03.2008 had mentioned that it is only the government which has the power to publish the names and that too after the adjudication and the appeal period. Commissioners have a tendency of publishing the names of alleged evaders even before the Show Cause Notice is issued.
We had brought you some of the names published by the Delhi Service Tax Commissionerate in their web site. DDT is happy to report that the names are still available in the website – and the Board is giving guidelines on how the names should be published! Obviously the Board is not taken seriously by the field.
Now, can the assessees whose names have been published by the Commissioners illegally claim damages from the Department for tarnishing their image? And if and when the damages are allowed, who will pay them? The Commissioner or the Board?
Sometime back an ADG in DGCEI sent us a press note with the names of the alleged offenders. I called up the ADG and asked him if he had the power to publish the names. He fairly conceded that publishing the names may not be proper and asked me not to carry the names. While the government cannot officially publish the names of alleged offenders, without following the prescribed procedure, they can always “leak” the information to the press. But brazen publication of names by the Government in its own website against the LAW is totally illegal and a government that shows scant respect for its own laws is an offender!