Corrigendum and functus officio: clarification of an omitted effective date justified interim stay of the appellate order.

A corrigendum to an order-in-original was treated as a permissible clarification because it only supplied an omitted effective date for the expansion claim, making the original order incomplete without that date. On a prima facie view, the doctrine of functus officio was held inapplicable because the correction did not amount to a fresh adjudication. Since the appellate order would have led to refund and was found not sustainable at that stage, interim protection was granted and operation of the order dated 28-3-2008 was stayed until disposal of the appeal.

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Issues: Whether the corrigendum issued to the order-in-original was liable to be set aside on the ground that the adjudicating authority had become functus officio after signing the original order, and whether the operation of the appellate order deserved to be stayed.

Analysis: The corrigendum merely clarified the effective date of the expansion claim and supplied an omission in the original order. The omission rendered the original order incomplete without that date, and the doctrine of functus officio was held inapplicable on a prima facie view. Since the appellate order would result in refund to the respondent and was found not to be sustainable at that stage, interim protection was considered warranted.

Outcome: The operation of the order dated 28-3-2008 was stayed till disposal of the appeal.

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