2016 (10) TMI 26

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....ibunal, South Zone Bench, Chennai, rendered in Final Order No.1263 of 2005 and 1264 of 2005 dated 12.09.2005. 2. This Civil Miscellaneous Appeal was admitted by a Division Bench of this Court on 28.04.2006 to consider the following substantial questions of law:- "(i) Whether the Tribunal has acted upon law by passing order of remand to the adjudicating authority when the point of dispute raised before them has already been elaborately reasoned out? (ii) Whether the order of the Tribunal is merely accepting the pleas of the 1st respondent without recording any reason and just citing the decision of the Tribunal, when the adjudicating authority has given effect to it with adequate reasons, is acceptable under law? ....

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....that the relevant provisions under Section 11AC was not available on the statute book when the alleged failure to pay the Duty at the time of the clearance of the goods manufactured. Therefore, the Tribunal has rightly set aside that part of the Order-in-Original passed by the Adjudicating Authority. 6. Since the Respondents have not disputed the liability to pay Duty, there was no necessity for the Tribunal to examine the correctness of the adjudication in that regard. But, however, dealing with the penalty of Rs. 2,00,000/- imposed under Rule 209A of the Rules, since there was no evidence brought forth to link Shri N.Ramachandran, for the alleged violations, the penalty is set aside by the Tribunal. 7. It will be relevant to notice ....

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.... registered warehouse or registered dealer, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding three times of the value of the Excisable goods in respect of the contravention referred to in the said Rule or Rs. 5,000/- whichever is greater. The Rule itself is framed in a language which brings out an element of exercise of discretion on the part of the Adjudicating Authority. 10. In the instant case, the discretion has not been exercised on sound lines and hence the Tribunal has reduced the penalty from Rs. 1,00,000/- to that of Rs. 50,000/-, though the Tribunal ought to have given the necessary reasons for it to substitute the quantum of penalty. But however, we cannot ignore the fact that the Order-in- Original does not speak of the liability o....