TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (10) TMI 476
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....ption was granted to the appellant to discharge the duty liability in order to avail reduction in penalty to the extent of 25% of the tax demand. 2. In the course of adjudication, learned Adjudicating Authority considering various contentions raised by appellant held that the appellant was providing Business Auxiliary Service and storage and ware housing service and liable to service tax. 3. While adjudication has been done with aforesaid consequences, a preliminary question on maintainability arose in this appeal in view of law laid down by Apex Court prescribing machinery of Committee on Dispute to resolve disputes of Public Sectors at their level before approaching Courts or Tribunal for such resolution. Apex Court time and again has held that it shall be the obligation of every court and every Tribunal where a dispute of Public Sectors is raised hereafter to demand a clearance from Committee on Disputes in case it has not been so pleaded and in the absence of the clearance, the proceedings would not be proceeded with. In the case of Oil and Natural Gas Commission Vs. Collector of Central Excise - 1992 (61) ELT 3 (S.C.) Apex Court had issued direction to the Government of ....
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....ore such filing every endeavour should be made to have the clearance of the High Power Committee. However, as to what the court or tribunal should do if such judicial remedies are sought before such a court or tribunal, the order of 11 th October 1991 clarifies: "It shall be the obligation of every Court and every Tribunal where such a dispute is raised hereafter to demand a clearance from the Committee in case it has not been so pleaded and in the absence of the clearance, the proceedings would not be proceeded with." In para 6 of the judgment in the case of ONGC Vs CCE - 1994 (70) ELT 45 (SC) the Court held as under: "6 . Wherever appeals, petitions etc. are filed without the clearance of the High Power Committee, so as to save limitation, the appellant or the petitioner as the case may be, shall within a month from such filing, refer the matter to the High Power Committee with prior notice to the Designated Authority in Cabinet Secretariat of Government of India authorised to receive notices in that behalf. Sri K.T.S. Tulsi, learned Additional Solicitor General, stated that in order to coordinate these references of the High Power Committee the Government proposes to....
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....law for resolution of the controversy. In the case of disputes between public sector undertakings and Union of India, this Court in Oil and Natural Gas Commission v. CCE [1992 Suppl. (2) SCC 432] called upon the Cabinet Secretary to handle such matters. In Oil and Natural Gas Commission & Anr. V. CCE [1995 Suppl. (4) SCC 541], this Court directed the Central Government to set up a Committee consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Industry, the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Ministry of Law, to monitor disputes between Ministry and Ministry of the Government of India, Ministry and public sector undertakings of the Government of India and public sector undertakings in between themselves, to ensure that no litigation comes to court or to a Tribunal without the matter having been first examined by the Committee and its clearance for litigation. The Government may include a representative of the Ministry concerned in a specific case and one from the Ministry of Finance in the Committee. Senior officers only should be nominated so that the Committee would function with status, control and discipline. 15. The facts of this appeal, noticed above, make out a strong case ....
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....tor and Ors. [2003 (3) SCC 472] it was inter alia as follows: "14. Under the scheme of the Constitution, Article 131 confers original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court in regard to a dispute between two States of the Union of India or between one or more States and the Union of India. It was not contemplated by the framers of the Constitution or CPC that two departments of a State or the Union of India will fight a litigation in a court of law. It is neither appropriate nor permissible for two departments of a State or the Union of India to fight litigation in a court of law. Indeed, such a course cannot but be detrimental to the public interest as it also entails avoidable wastage of public money and time. Various departments of the Government are its limbs and, therefore, they must act in coordination and not in confrontation. Filing of a writ petition by one department against the other by invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of the High Court is not only against the propriety and polity as it smacks of indiscipline but is also contrary to the basic concept of law which requires that for suing or being sued, there must be either a natural or a juristic person. The States/U....