Stanlek Engineering P. Ltd. v. CEST Mumbai 2008 (229) ELT 61 (Bom)

Central Excise Act , 1944
Appellate Tribunal- Rectification of Mistake – Not referring to the judgments of the Tribunal of which the appellant was relying, is not proper.- Order of Tribunal is set aside .

The appellant had an filed appeal before the CESTAT, in the written submission filed before the Tribunal the appellant had relied on two tribunal decisions in its favour The appeal was heard exparte, the Tribunal by referring to a judgement of the Supreme Court in the case o CCE, Ahmedabad v. Ramesh Food Products 2004(174) ELT 310 (SC) disposed of the `appeal. No reference was made to the judgements of the Tribunal which were relied upon by the appellant. The appellant, therefore, filed an application for rectification pointing out that the appellant had relied upon the two judgments of the Tribunal in his submissions. The Tribunal, however, disposed of his appeal without considering those judgments. The Tribunal again dismissed the rectification application. On further appeal the Hon’ble High Court observed that the procedure that has been followed by the Tribunal is not in accordance with law. If in the opinion of the Tribunal, the two judgements of the Tribunal on which the appellant was relying, were not relevant, the Tribunal could have said so in its judgment. The course adopted by the Tribunal, of even not referring to the judgments of the Tribunal  of which the appellant was relying, is not proper.  It was for the tribunal to point out, after considering the judgment of the Tribunal on which the appellant was relying, why those judgements were not relied and how, according to the Tribunal, the matter is covered by the judgement of the Supreme Court. In view of the above appeal was allowed by remanding the matter back to Tribunal.