Call-book treatment of show cause notices can justify deferring writ review and challenge to the empowering notification.

Where a show cause notice is treated as a call-book case under the Master Circular because the Department has already appealed and the earlier judgment is pending before the Supreme Court with leave and stay, the writ petition need not be examined immediately. The Court declined to decide the challenge to the notification empowering the adjudicating officer at that stage, as the same controversy was already sub judice in appeal. The petitioner was left at liberty to seek keeping the adjudication proceedings in abeyance before the adjudicating authority and to revive the challenge to the notification depending on the outcome of the pending appeals.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition could be entertained immediately when the show cause notice was treated as a call-book case under the Master Circular, and whether the challenge to the notification empowering the adjudicating officer should be examined at that stage.

Analysis: The Circular governing call-book cases contemplated that adjudication could be kept in abeyance where the Department had already gone in appeal. Since the earlier judgment involving the same controversy had been carried in appeal to the Supreme Court and leave had been granted with stay, the petitioner's show cause notice fell within that category. In that situation, the Court found no urgency to decide the writ petition or to adjudicate the challenge to the notification issued to address the earlier judgment. The petitioner was left at liberty to seek keeping the adjudication proceedings in abeyance before the adjudicating authority and to revive the challenge to the notification depending on the outcome of the pending appeals.

Conclusion: The petition was not decided on merits at this stage and was disposed of with liberty to revive the challenge later and to seek abeyance of the adjudication proceedings before the authority.

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