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2005 (5) TMI 203 - AT - Central ExciseAdjudication - violation of principles of 'Natural Justice' - duty demand - HELD THAT:- The CEGAT in its Final Order dated 12-2-2002 remanded the case to the Original authority on the ground that the order suffers from denial of principles of 'Natural Justice'. There was a specific direction to supply the documents relied upon by the Department in the show cause notice. However, on going through the de novo order, we find that the directions of CEGAT have not been complied with, presumably due to the fact that the said documents have been lost by the Department. Hence, we cannot accept the adjudicating authority's observations that these documents are not relied upon. Once the show cause notice mentions that certain documents are relied on, the Department should take utmost care to preserve them and furnish copy of the documents to the party. Non-furnishing of relied on documents is clearly a violation of denial of principles of Natural Justice. The de novo order also suffers from the vice of denial of principles of 'Natural Justice' as the original order. Thus, without going into the merit of the case, we are compelled to set aside the impugned order. In view of these findings, the appeal of the Revenue against the impugned order on the ground that no separate penalty under Rule 173Q has been imposed by the adjudicating authority becomes infructuous. Hence we allow the party's appeals and reject the Revenue's appeal. These three appeals are disposed of in the above terms.
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