Rectification cannot reopen a final order based on later stay developments when no apparent error existed on the record.

Rectification could not be used to reopen a Tribunal's final order merely because the Department later obtained a stay in High Court proceedings against the judgment on which that order had been based. The order was passed on the existing record, which then included the Single Judge's judgment quashing the show cause notice, and no Division Bench stay was on record at that time. A subsequent appeal or later judicial development did not create an error apparent on the face of the record. The rectification application was therefore not maintainable and was rejected.

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Issues: Whether the rectification application could be allowed on the ground that, after the Tribunal's earlier final order, the Department had obtained a stay in the High Court proceedings against the judgment on which that order had proceeded.

Analysis: The earlier final order had been passed on the basis of the then-existing record, namely the judgment of the learned Single Judge quashing the show cause notice. No stay order of the Division Bench was on record when that order was made, and the subsequent pendency of the Department's appeal did not establish any error apparent on the face of the record. A later decision or development before a superior court does not convert a correctly passed earlier order into one suffering from an apparent mistake.

Conclusion: The rectification application was not maintainable and was rejected.

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