AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Regarding measures to streamline the processing of departmental litigation before the Courts and Tribunal
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....in this regard prescribing the procedure to be followed and precautions to be taken by the field formations. However, it has been observed that more than 50% of the proposals received by the Board suffer from infirmities including delays beyond limitation period. It has to be appreciated that the Courts take serious note of such procedural infirmities and considerable effort, resource and time go into rectifying them. Further, Courts do not condone delays unless there is adequate justification for the same. The Board has taken a serious note of the matter and it has been decided to fasten accountability wherever SLP/Civil Appeal Proposal is received by the Board without observance of due procedure or with infirmities or later than the prescribed time frame. The field formations are therefore directed to scrupulously follow the instructions contained in this circular. Needless to say that any deviation, without plausible explanation, would be viewed seriously. 2. Delay in receipt of proposals in the Board's office: 2.1 One major cause of concern is delay in receipt of proposals in the Board's office. The reason often cited in most of such cases is either non-receipt or delay in r....
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....cers of the Government of India. 2.4. The CA proposals should be sent so as to be received in the Boards office within fifteen days from the receipt of the Order of the Tribunal and SLP proposal are received within twenty days from the date of the order of the High Court. The proposal against the High court's order shall be initiated on the strength of the copy of the order circulated by the Court on its own motion or copy downloaded from the website of the Court i.e www.indiancourts.nic.in or www.courtnic.nic.in without waiting for the certified copy of the order. The certified copy of the order may be sent separately thereafter. It may be noted that in case of CA the period of limitation of 60 days begins from the date of receipt of order. However in case of SLP period of limitation of 90 days begins from the date of order of the High Court. 2.5. All proposals must be sent by the field formations within the prescribed time limits. In case of delay, detailed justification should be furnished and corrective action should be initiated immediately, so that such delays do not occur in future. Delays on flimsy grounds would be viewed seriously. 3. Quality of proposals: 3.1 Quality ....
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.... documents shall be furnished as soon as possible. (ii) The technical literature, court orders, judgments, copies of written submissions as well as material including technical literature which had been furnished to the Tribunal by the assessee at the time of oral submissions may be required for preparation of appeal proposal by the Department. The Joint Chief Departmental Representatives shall ensure that the documents stated above are preserved and sent to the Commissioner concerned immediately after the pronouncement of the order so that the said documents can be made a part of the Paper Book in case it is decided to agitate the matter before the Supreme Court. In case the documents have not been received by the Commissioner at the time of sending the CA proposal to the Board, the same should be procured by the Commissioners from DR's office and send to the Board as soon as possible. 5. Other measures to improve the processing of litigations: 5.1 Grading of cases pending before the Courts is very important for effective monitoring by supervisory officers and, therefore, the Chief Commissioners are advised to devise an appropriate mechanism to prioritize important cases and c....
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.... matters of COD, the instructions issued by the Cabinet Secretariat have been circulated by the Board from time to time. However, it is seen that delayed proposals, incomplete or illegible documents and pages not having been numbered, are being received and commented upon by the Committee on Disputes. The enclosures should be legible and all the documents should be page numbered for ease of reference. Also, all the relevant orders should be enclosed. Further, it is once again reiterated that proposals having revenue implication of 5 lakhs and below need not be sent for approval by the High Powered Committee. 8. The above instructions in brief enumerate the steps/measures being taken or to be taken to improve the mechanism of litigation. The comprehensive instructions in details are contained in Annexures as per details mentioned in para 9 below. Further these instructions cast certain responsibilities on Chief Commissioners, Commissioners and CDR office. Therefore, to ensure compliance of these instructions, a one time report on the points mentioned in Annexure VIII will be furnished by all Zonal Chief Commissioners and CDR by 31st December 2010. 9. In order to reduce department....
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....pt of this Circular may please be acknowledged. 14. Hindi version will follow. (Sunil K Sinha) Director (JC) ============= Document 1 Annexure II Filing of appeals before High Courts The Chief Commissioners shall also be involved in the process of litigation before the High Courts. Henceforth, acceptance of CESTAT’s orders or filing of appeals by the Commissioner before the High Courts shall be subject to obtaining the concurrence of the Chief Commissioner. This mechanism would also ensure uniform approach in filing the appeals before the High Courts within a Chief Commissioner’s jurisdiction. There are instances where the Commissioners filed appeals before the High Court after obtaining some legal advice even though the issue related to valuation or rate of duty. The High Courts rejected revenue appeals as non-maintainable and delayed appeals were filed before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court does not condone delay on grounds like pursuing appeal before a wrong forum and has been dismissing such delayed appeals. Such instances show the department in poor light besides the issue does not get examined on merit by the superior judiciary. O....
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..... 2. Engagement of Special Counsels in cases involving complexities of law / high revenue stake/ having all India ramifications A panel of retired officers of the department as Special Counsels was constituted in Aug 2006 (further expanded in 2008) to defend the cases of Revenue with their specialized knowledge in respect of cases involving complexities of law / high revenue stake/ cases involving all India ramifications. The Chief Commissioners may assign the cases to them in accordance with the guidelines laid down in this regard. The Commissioners may take stock of cases of the nature as specified above and recommend to the Chief Commissioner concerned for the engagement of the special counsel out of the said panel. The Chief Departmental Representative may also send his recommendations to the Chief Commissioner concerned for engagement of special counsels, if need be. The Chief Departmental Representative will also provide input to the Chief Commissioners in annual performance review of such special counsels. 3. Briefing the Departmental Representatives / Special Counsels by well conversant officers of the Commissionerate in important matters Board further reiterates that well ....
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....pursue the matter with the publications. Document 4 Annexure V Disputes between Central Government Department and PSU / other Government Departments (a) In cases where disputes arise between two Central Government Departments or a Government Department and Public Sector Undertaking, the procedure laid down for obtaining clearance of the Committee of Disputes needs to be followed scrupulously. Attention is invited to Circular number 27/27/94-CX dated 2.3.94 as modified from time to time particularly by Circular Nos. 156/67/95-CX dated 17.11.95, 515/11/2000-CX dated 18.2.2000 and 578/15/2001-CX dated 20-06-2001 issued in this regard detailing the procedure to be followed in such cases. As emphasized in the Circulars cited supra, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has clarified that while there is no bar in lodgment of an appeal so as to save time, every endeavor should be made to obtain clearance of the Committee on Disputes. Board, therefore directs strict compliance to the instructions issued in this regard. Several proposals are being received much beyond the stipulated period of one month from the date of filing appeal which is contrary to the directions of the Hon’ble Court....
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....her office at 4th Floor, Rajendra Bhawan, 210, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi . (b) The officers of Directorate attend the Court proceedings daily in respect of cases coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court and prepare a Daily Report indicating the outcome of the hearing before the Court. The said Daily Report is uploaded on the website of the department www.cbec.gov.in. The Directorate has been placing the Terminal list on the website from 2008 onwards and has also been placing the advance list, the weekly list and the cause list beforehand on the said website. The communications received from the Ld Law Officers, Senior Counsels and the Central Agency Section regarding the directions of the Court in certain matters, issue of notices, briefing schedule etc are conveyed to the Commissionerates by the Directorate. (c) The Directorate is the nodal authority with regard to party’s appeal filed in the Supreme Court so as to ensure effective monitoring and co-ordination with field formation and the Central Agency Section in this regard. This would involve co-ordinating work relating to filing of caveat on important issues, timely filing of counter-affidavits and vakalatna....
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....ring the year. In the event of the Directorate not circulating the list or putting it on the web, it would be incumbent upon the Commissioners to carefully surf the Supreme Court website to download the relevant portion of the said terminal list. Once the Commissioner has listed out the cases relating to his charge, he should have a system in place so that a well conversant officer could rush with case records at short notice to assist and brief the Senior Counsel or Law Officer. 2. The Supreme Court Registry issues several lists but two lists, viz , ( i ) Advance List and (ii) Weekly List are particularly relevant. Both these are also available on the websites sited supra and the Directorate has placed them on www.cbec.gov.in as well. Commissioners should visit the aforesaid website on regular basis to find out the cases pertaining to their jurisdiction which are likely to be listed during the coming days / week. Once the cases are identified, they should keep track of developments in the appeals against the connected matters (Refer Proforma “Dâ€) as they may be asked to inform the same at very short notice. The Commissionerates can get ready with all relevant materials....
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....r to the Counsel on the day of the settlement or the next day. But the time left between the receipt of brief and date of listing of the case ordinarily remains very short. The Directorate, therefore, can provide the briefing requirement details etc. to the concerned Commissionerate only when the names of Advocates have been finalized by the Central Agency Section and Briefs have been delivered to the Counsel. Effectively DLA gets 1 to 3 days time which may include holidays to take action on briefing requirement. 4. Thus, in view of unavoidable difficulties and system of marking of cases adopted by the CAS as brought out supra, it is imperative for the Commissioners to regularly log on to the website www.courtnic.nic.in or www.indiancourts.nic.in besides the CBEC website to see the various developments including the listing of their cases on the said site. As the Court‟ s orders are also normally uploaded on the said site, concerned Commissionerate may also take timely action for compliance accordingly. Document 7 Annexure VIII Report to be furnished by the Chief Commissioner & Chief Departmental Representative Reports to be furnished by Zonal Chief Commissioner: (I) Details ....