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2015 (11) TMI 1459

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..... pellant. In these circumstances we arrive on the conclusion that a reasonable opportunity of hearing was not provided to the appellant before imposing penalty on him and therefore principle of natural justice has been violated by the adjudicating authority. - we aside the order of imposition of penalty on the appellant with the direction that the ld.Commissioner shall decide the case afresh after giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing to the appellant - Decided in favour of assessee. - Stay Petition No.SP-70991/13 & Appeal Nos.Cus.Ap.76541/14 & 70966/13 - ORDER NO.FO/A/75269-75270/2015 - Dated:- 12-5-2015 - Dr. D.M. Misra, Member(Judicial) And Dr.I.P.Lal, Member(Technical) For the Petitioner : Shri Udayan Ganguly, Consultant .....

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..... epeatedly avoided his appearance before the investigating officer and they did not appear before the said authorities even though repeated summons were issued to them. Since they did not cooperate with the investigation and did not attend the hearing, the ld.Commissioner has no choice, but to adjudicate the case on the basis of the available records. He produced before the Bench a copy of letter dated 29.11.2012 informing the appellant, the three consecutive days of hearing, but the appellant did not bother to attend the personal hearing. 5.1 We find that as per direction of the court, the question whether adequate opportunity of hearing was given to the appellant or otherwise to be considered first by the Tribunal, before entering into .....

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..... t shall be granted more than three times to a party during the proceedings. 5.4 It is evident from the above provisions of Customs Act, 1962 that a reasonable opportunity is to be provided to a person before imposing any penalty on him. In this regard we are of the opinion that granting three consecutive days of hearing i.e. at short intervals of a week or so cannot be considered as the reasonable opportunity afforded to the appellant before deciding the case. Moreover neither the order of the ld.Commissioner nor any evidence is produced by the Revenue showing that the communication of the hearing on 14.01.2013 was duly served to the appellant. In these circumstances we arrive on the conclusion that a reasonable opportunity of hearing wa .....

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