Record of personal hearing in service tax to evidence submissions; provision to remand an order abck for reconsideration

[Suresh Viswanathan]

We were given a personal hearing by the Commissioner (Appeals) on a service tax matter in an appeal against the order of the additional commissioner . We have made various additional submissions of case laws and also verbal submissions at the hearing. The Commissioner appeals dismissed our case without going into specific details of our various submissions and has not even responded on several specific arguments raised by us. The queris are:

(1) Can we obtain a copy of the record of hearing evidencing the submissions both verabl and documentary by us

(2) Can we ask for the order to be reconsidered or reviewed on the ground that it is passed "without application of mind" as it has not even addresed the issues raised individually

(3) In case the order passed is as above does it not violate the board circulars in respect of the requirement that all authorities should respond on "each issue" with "analysis" and "cogent reasoning" ?? and if it so violates our rights (other than appeal to the tribunal of course) ??

thanks

AI Summary

Right to copy of personal hearing record where appellate order lacks application of mind; appeal to tribunal is remedy.
A party can obtain the record of a personal hearing to evidence submissions; if an appellate order fails to address specific submissions or lacks application of mind this raises a natural justice concern, but the available remedy is to pursue a statutory appeal to the tribunal since the officer who issued the order is functus officio and cannot review it. Board circulars mandating analysis on each issue underline that omission of issue-specific reasoning should be pleaded as grounds in the tribunal appeal; focus on legally strong grounds and avoid confrontational language.