Home Case Index All Cases Central Excise Central Excise + AT Central Excise - 2019 (2) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2019 (2) TMI 1554 - AT - Central ExciseRestoration of appeal - order was disposed off, though not without consideration of the grounds of appeal, but without the applicant having been placed on notice that the adjourned hearing was scheduled for 22nd January 2018 - Held that:- Tribunal had passed the order on merits despite the absence of any representation of the appellant. These are not merits that should go into. However, it is also on record that no notice was issued for the hearing and that the present deponent is employee of the appellant who, admittedly, was present in court on the scheduled dates in November 2017 and December 2017. In the docket sheet, we find that the adjournment has been recorded on a rubber stamp template with blanks that have been filled in. It is a convention that dates of the next hearing in appeals, that are called out in seriatum and adjourned, are ordered by the bench in their own hand and also by their own pen which is lacking in the present instance implying that these were noted owing to, and after conclusion of time of sitting - it is not possible for us to firmly conclude that the direction not to issue notice was an order of the bench and that the adjournment was publicly ordered in court. In a situation such as this, fraught with even an iota of doubt, it is our bounden obligation to the presiding deity of this and every court, that invisible, but undoubtedly abiding, venerable lady in a blind fold and armed with a sword in her left hand, that the balance of the scales in her right hand should never be allowed to teeter. It would again, therefore, be in the interest of justice for the matter not be placed before a bench comprising either of us, severally or jointly, and lest there be any whisper that this entire exercise is mere lip service, we also direct that erstwhile order of the Tribunal be placed in a sealed cover in this file by Registry before it is placed before the appropriate bench, with due notice, for fresh hearing and disposal - application for restoration of appeal allowed.
|