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2017 (12) TMI 712 - HC - Central ExciseActivation of adjudicating proceedings after a long gap over a decade - SCN was kept in abeyance - case of the Department, which now emerges is that on account of the fact that a similar issue is pending before the Supreme Court, the proceedings were kept in abeyance - case of appellant is that proceedings were kept in abeyance for over 15 years without any reason or explanation and the reason for the same was never communicated to the petitioners - Held that: - the show cause notices were issued in the years 2001 and 2004. After petitioners filed their replies, no further development took place. No hearing was conducted. Without communication to the petitioners or reason for keeping the proceedings in abeyance, the proceedings were sent to call book. The proceedings were activated in the year 2017, again without any indication or reasons. The proceedings, which prompted the Department to defer the adjudication, came to be decided by the Supreme Court in the year 2012. In the meantime, the unit was shut down since long. Reliance placed in the case of SIDDHI VINAYAK SYNTEX PVT LTD. Versus Versus UNION OF INDIA & 2 [2017 (3) TMI 1534 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT], where it was held that After seventeen years, the persons who were conversant with the case may not be available, documentary evidence may have been displaced. Thus, the delay in deciding the proceedings, that too without bringing it to the notice of the petitioner that the case was transferred to the call book and was therefore pending, causes immense prejudice to the petitioner. The revival of the proceedings, therefore, is in complete breach of the principles of natural justice and hence, the impugned show cause notice and the order-in-original passed pursuant thereto, cannot be sustained. Petition allowed - decided in favor of petitioner.
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