Rectification of mistake — No finding on the decision cited by the appellant.

The appellant had filed appeal before the CESTAT. In the
written submission filed before the Tribunal the appellant had relied on two
Tribunal decisions in its favour. The appeal was heard ex parte. The
Tribunal by referring to a judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of CCE,
Ahmedabad v. Ramesh Food Products, 2004(174) ELT 310 (SC) disposed of the
appeal. No reference was made to the judgments of the Tribunal which were relied
upon by the appellant. The appellant, therefore, filed an application for
rectification, pointing out that the appellant had relied upon two judgments of
the Tribunal in his submissions. The Tribunal, however, disposed of his appeal
without considering those judgments. The Tribunal again dismissed the
rectification application. On further appeal the High Court observed that the
procedure that has been followed by the Tribunal is not in accordance with law.
If in the opinion of the Tribunal, the two judgments of the Tribunal on which
the appellant was relying, were not relevant, the Tribunal could have said so in
its judgment. The course adopted by the Tribunal, of even not referring to the
judgments of the Tribunal or which the appellant was relying, is not proper. It
was for the Tribunal to point out, after considering the judgments of the
Tribunal on which the appellant was relying, why those judgments were not relied
and how, according to the Tribunal, the matter is covered by the judgment of the
Supreme Court. In view of the above, the appeal was allowed by remanding the
matter back to the Tribunal.