Committee of Commissioners cannot examine orders passed by Commissioner (A)
Stunned! No, Sir we do not wish to withdraw these powers from the Committee constituted by the erudite Commissioners but here's an eye popping mail from an inquisitive netizen which says so.
Section 35EE (1A) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 stipulates that the Commissioner of Central Excise may, if he is of the opinion that an order passed by the Commissioner(Appeals) under section 35A , where the order is of the nature referred to in the first proviso to section 35B (1), is not legal or proper direct the proper officer to make an application on this behalf to the Central Government for revision of such order.
So, the legal position is that such orders of the nature referred to in the first proviso to section 35B (1) of the CEA'44 viz. rebate etc. passed by the Commissioner(Appeals) are not required to be examined by the Committee of Commissioners but by the jurisdictional Commissioner ONLY.
Interestingly, there is no time limit prescribed in section 35EE within which the Revenue has to make an application to the Central Government for revision of such order.
By the way, I shudder to think about all those orders of the Commissioner (Appeals) concerning “rebate” that have been accepted or ordered for review by the learned Committee of Commissioners– what would be their fate if the above “trespass” comes to the notice of the Revisionary authority?
May be, I am too finicky, but if the Department still harbours doubts about whether they can review pro-revenue orders as mentioned in , I think my question is sure to set eyeballs rolling.