Appellate Tribunal — Strictures against Department for filing appeal in avoidable litigation.

The appeal had been preferred by the Revenue authorities u/s.35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 against the order of CESTAT.

In original proceedings on the issue of deficient payment of excise duty on account of wrongful availment of Cenvat credit were dropped. This order had been upheld by the Commissioner (Appeals) and had been further upheld by the Tribunal. The Tribunal, inter alia, observed:

“The Department deserves to be complimented for their perseverance as the Tribunal’s decision dated 4-7-2008 in the previous set of proceedings on the main issue is in favour of the party, the question of allowing this appeal of the Department does not arise.”

In spite of the above observations, the Department had chosen to file the appeal before the High Court claiming that there is a substantial question of law. The Court held that the above action only shows total carelessness and nonapplication of mind. Apart from the fact that the original authority, the Appellate Authority and the Tribunal decided against the Department, the amount involved was only Rs.39,117. In spite of the judgments of the Supreme Court as well as observations made by the Court, the Department is turning a deaf ear and is wasting public money on avoidable litigation.

Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed with costs at Rs.10,000 to be recovered from the person taking decision to file the appeal within three months and to be deposited with the High Court Legal Services Committee.