Jurisdictional defect in appellate orders: orders passed after retirement or beyond assigned territory are void and remanded for fresh hearing.

An appellate order passed by a Commissioner (Appeals) after compulsory retirement is without jurisdiction because the authority becomes functus officio; the Tribunal treated such orders as a nullity. It also noted that orders dealing with matters outside the territorial jurisdiction assigned to the office suffer from the same jurisdictional defect. On that basis, the impugned appellate orders were held void and not sustainable in law, and the matters were remanded to the competent jurisdictional Commissioner (Appeals) for fresh adjudication after giving the parties an opportunity of hearing.

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Issues: Whether the orders of the Commissioner (Appeals) were jurisdiction and void because they were passed after the officer had compulsorily retired and in matters outside the territorial jurisdiction assigned to him.

Analysis: The order records that the Commissioner (Appeals) had ceased to hold office upon compulsory retirement and was therefore functus officio. It further records that certain appeals disposed of by him pertained to a jurisdiction not assigned to his office. Relying on the settled principle that jurisdictional defect goes to the root of the matter and that an order passed without jurisdiction is a nullity, the Tribunal held that the impugned appellate orders could not be sustained in law.

Conclusion: The impugned orders were held to be void for want of jurisdiction and not sustainable.

Final Conclusion: The matters were sent back to the respective jurisdictional Commissioner (Appeals) for fresh adjudication in accordance with law after affording an opportunity of hearing, and the connected appeals and cross objections were disposed of for statistical purposes.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate order passed by an authority after it has become functus officio, or beyond the authority's assigned jurisdiction, is a jurisdictionally void nullity and must be set aside for decision by the competent forum.

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