2003 (5) TMI 248

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....Lal Singh, Authorised Signatory of the applicant- company besides imposing penalties on the appellant-company. 2. Shri Rajesh Chhibber, learned Advocate, submitted that the impugned order has been passed in gross violation of the principle of natural justice as the relied upon documents mentioned in the show cause notice have not been supplied to the appellants till date in spite of request being made by them; that in their letter dated 17-10-2001 they have made categorical request for supply of relied upon documents for the preparation of their defence reply; that they could also not attend personal hearing as their Managing Director was out of station and they had requested for adjournment; that it is settled law that it is the resp....

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....be accompanied by copies of all documents relied upon by the Department. If the relied upon documents are not furnished to the person whom the show cause notice has been issued he will not be in a position to present his case properly. It is not the case of the Department that the relied upon documents were supplied to the Appellants along with show cause notice. We observe that immediately after receipt of show cause notice the Appellants, under their letter dated 31-8-2000, had requested the Department to furnish copies of relied upon documents to enable them to prepare their defence reply. The Department under letter dated 28-9-2000 directed them to collect personally the photocopies of the documents from Supdt. (Preventive), Meerut-1 fo....

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....e copies of the documents was not before the Court but it appears that the Supreme Court was of the view that supply of copies was necessary." The Rajasthan High Court in the said judgment has also referred to a decision of the Tribunal in Jayanti Lal A. Shah v. CCE, Mumbai, 2002 (150) E.L.T. 862 (T) = 1999 (34) R.L.T. 466. In that case the copies of the relied upon documents were supplied along with the show cause notice but copies were illegible and on complaint being made, the Assessee was told to inspect the record and take photocopies of the record. This was not approved by the Tribunal observing that when the Department gives a show cause notice proposing to initiate action for alleged violation of law, duty is cast is upon the depart....