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2013 (5) TMI 482 - HC - Central ExciseMaintainability of settlement application – u/s 32E – As per department that an order of adjudication is made on the date on which the adjudicating authority dispatched it to the assessee and since the date of dispatch was after the filing of the settlement application, the application was maintainable - Held that :- The object of Section 32E is to enable an assessee to come before the Settlement Commission with a clean, complete and candid disclosure and with a payment of the excise duty with interest. A literal construction of the words “before adjudication” would defeat the purpose and intent of Parliament. As this case itself shows, the Commissioner proceeded in undue haste, without waiting for the supply of documents to the assessee and even after being informed that the assessee was in all probably moving the Settlement Commission during the course of the week. The majority of the Settlement Commission was of the view that there was no reason for the assessee not to have filed a settlement application before 13 January 2011. What this view clearly misses is that proceedings before the adjudicating officer were pending. Assessee was still to obtain copies of the documents which were relied upon in the show cause notice. Despite the assessee informing the Commissioner, that it had paid the filing fee and would file the settlement application within a week, the Commissioner proceeded to pass an order in utter haste. Therefore the settlement application which was filed by the assessee before the date of the dispatch of the order of adjudication is maintainable before the Settlement Commission. The settlement application shall accordingly stand restored to the file of the Settlement Commission for further disposal in accordance with law. Thus, the petition is allowed.
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