All India Case Withdrawal in Supreme Court Decided Cases

CBEC Issues Landmark 18 Dec Circular for “Ease of Doing Business”

CBEC has issued an instruction dated 18th December, 2015 vide F No. 390/MISC/67/2014-JC, effective from immediate effect, to withdraw cases pending in High Court/CESTAT, where Supreme Court has decided on an identical matter and the decision has been accepted by the Department.

Further, it has been decided that Committee of Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners of Customs, CE or Service Tax (as the case may be), with the approval of competent authority, shall henceforth also call for and examine all appeals filed in the respective High Courts and CESTAT benches falling in their jurisdiction.

Hence, whenever such appeals are covered by a Supreme Court decision, which has been accepted by the Department, the committee shall by order direct such Commissioner or any other Commissioner to apply in the Appellate Tribunal/High Court for withdrawal of such appeals, subject to the following:-

a. Wherever there is more than one issue involved in an appeal and the SC's decision pertains to only one of these, these appeals will not be covered by this instruction.

b. Wherever there are substantial questions of law and the SC decision has not been passed on these, those appeals will not be covered by this instruction.

Further, a monthly report to the Board (JS Review) of the number of cases reviewed in this regard, and the number of appeals withdrawn shall also be submitted.

[CBEC Instruction F.No.390/Misc./67/2015-JC dated 18^th December 2015]

Sub: Withdrawal of cases pending before HC/CESTAT on the basis of earlier Supreme Court’s decision on the identical matters.

The matter relating to the large number of appeals pending/ filed in the CESTAT/ High Court has been a matter of concern In this regard it has been decided to withdraw cases pending in High Court/ CESTAT, where Supreme Court has decided on an identical matter and the decision has been accepted by the Department.

However, the whole process of withdrawal requires an elaborate exercise to be undertaken by the Commissioners concerned, with the approval of the jurisdictional Chief Commissioner where the appellant or petitioner is the jurisdictional Commissioner.

It has therefore been decided with the approval of the Competent authority that the Committee of Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners of Customs, CE or Service Tax (as the case may be ) constituted under Section 129D of the Customs Act, Section 35E of the Central Excise Act, and Section 86(2) of the Finance Act, 1994 shall, in addition to the statutory function of review under the above provisions, henceforth also call for and examine all appeals filed in the respective High Courts and CESTAT benches falling in their jurisdiction. Whenever such appeals are covered by a Supreme Court decision, which has been accepted by the Department, the committee shall by order direct such Commissioner or any other Commissioner to apply in the Appellate Tribunal/ High Court for withdrawal of such appeals. This shall however be subject to:

a. Wherever there are more than one issue involved in an appeal and the SC’s decision pertains to only one of these, these appeals will not be covered by this instruction

b. Wherever there are substantial questions of law and the SC decision has not been passed on these, those appeals will not be covered by this instruction.

Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners will submit a monthly report to the Board (JS Review) of the number of cases reviewed in this regard, and the number of appeals withdrawn in the format enclosed.

This shall come into force with immediate effect.

Annexure
Zone
	Appeals Pending	Appeals reviewed during the month	Appeals withdrawn/not pressed during month	Progressive number of appeals reviewed	Progressive number of appeals withdrawn/not pressed
High Court of
CESTAT Bench