The Central Board of Excise and Customs has issued Circular No. 1063/2/2018-CX dated 16.02.2018 on the subject “Orders of Supreme Court, High Courts and CESTAT accepted by the Department and on which no review petitions, SLPs have been filed”, in relation to Indirect Taxes.

The Circular compiles 63 Orders which have been accepted by the Department. In fourteen (14) of these Orders, the Hon’ble High Courts have decided various questions of law. In the rest of the Orders, the Hon’ble High Courts have delivered judgments on the basis of some settled case law or have decided points of facts or have dismissed the appeal on monetary grounds. The said Orders which have been accepted by the Department have been compiled in the Circular so that cases pending in the field can be expeditiously decided, if the questions of law or facts involved are identical.

This exercise has been undertaken as an endeavour to reduce litigations so that cases on similar questions of law or identical case on facts pending in the field can be expeditiously decided.

Department acceptance of appellate orders leads to non filing of review petitions and SLPs to reduce litigation and expedite similar cases. Department issued a Circular compiling sixty three appellate and tribunal orders that it has accepted and will not challenge by filing review petitions or special leave petitions; fourteen involve High Court decisions on questions of law, while others rest on settled precedent, factual findings, or monetary dismissal. The Department's non filing policy is intended to reduce litigation and enable expeditious, uniform disposal of identical or similar indirect tax cases by making the accepted orders operative for field application.