2015 (1) TMI 117

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....l liable to be set aside as the notice of the appeal had not been served on the appellant? (b) Does the Tribunal have the power to enhance the penalty and whether the power under Section 129B would include the power to entertain an appeal only for the purpose of enhancement of penalty imposed? (c) Is the Commissioner of Customs who holds the same rank as Collector of Customs who was the Adjudicating Authority entitled to file an appeal against the order of the Collector of Customs and whether he could be considered as an aggrieved party within the meaning of the Act? 2.1. The facts in a nutshell are as under: A truck bearing registration No.KA-25-1254 was intercepted by the officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and 7....

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....ed his argument only to questions of law (a) and (b). 5.1. With regard to the first question of law raised in this appeal, the main plank of the argument of the learned counsel for the appellant is that the proviso to Section 129B(2) of the Customs Act mandates that notice should be issued before an order of enhancement is passed by the Tribunal and since such a notice has not been issued in the case on hand, the order passed by the Tribunal is bad in law. 5.2. Before adverting to the merits of the first question of law raised in this appeal, it would be apposite to refer to paragraph (12) of the order passed by the Tribunal, which reads as under: "12. We have considered the submissions of the learned DR., appeared for the responde....

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....as the effect of enhancing the assessment or reducing a refund or otherwise increasing the liability of the other party shall not be made under this sub-section, unless the Appellate Tribunal has given notice to him of its intention to do so and has allowed him a reasonable opportunity of being heard. (emphasis supplied) 6.3. In our considered opinion, the learned counsel for the appellant has misconstrued the said provision. All that Section 129B(2) of the Act contemplates is that after passing an order under Section 129B(1) of the Act, if the Tribunal, at any time within six months from the date of such order passed under Section 129B(1) of the Act, decides to rectify any mistake apparent from the record, it shall make amendment to ....