AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (4) TMI 881
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.... remedy before the Collector of Customs and before the Central Board of Customs Excise and Customs, depending on the authority which has passed the initial order of assessment, was provided. There was a power of suo motu revision with the Board as well as a revisional jurisdiction to be exercised on an application by an aggrieved person. The Central Government under Section 131 (originally enacted) and under Section 129DD (Substituted by Act 21 of 1984) was also vested with a revisional jurisdiction. 4. By the Finance Act No.2 of 1980, a quasijudicial authority, namely, Customs Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) was constituted to hear appeals against orders of the Collector as well as the orders of the Board. The said Tribunal came to be known as Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), with the introduction of levy of service tax. The CEGAT and its successor CESTAT were constituted as specialized quasi-judicial appellate bodies to decide all issues relating to duty assessment under the Customs Act. There was no provision of appeal to the jurisdictional High Court against the order of the appellate tribunal. However, under Section 130 of the ....
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....ection 130A, the Reference Jurisdiction of the High Court was continued in respect of orders passed by the Tribunal on or before 1.7.2003. Such reference jurisdiction remained circumscribed as before, as already noticed. 7. Under the 2003 Amendment, as against an order passed by the High Court in appeal or on a reference, an appeal to the Supreme Court continued to be provided [Section 130(E)a]. Section 130E(b) remained and continued to provide that against an order passed by the Appellate Tribunal relating among other things determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment, appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court. Section 130F was retained on similar terms as before. 8. By the National Tax Tribunal Act, 2005, a National Tax Tribunal was constituted under Section 5 thereof to hear appeals from "every order passed in appeal by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and the Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal if the National Tax Tribunal is satisfied that the case involves substantial question of law" (Section 15). Under Section 23 of the National Tax Tribunal Act, 2005 on and from the notified....
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....f July, 2003 (not being an order relating, among other things, to the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment), if the High Court is satisfied that the case involves a substantial question of law. (2) Commissioner of Customs or the other party aggrieved by any order passed by the Appellate Tribunal may file an appeal to the High Court and such appeal under this sub-section shall be - (a) filed within one hundred and eighty days from the date on which the order appealed against is received by the Commissioner of Customs or the other party; (b) accompanied by a fee of two hundred rupees where such appeal is filed by the other party; (c) in the form of a memorandum of appeal precisely stating therein the substantial question of law involved (2A) The High Court may admit an appeal after the expiry of the period of one hundred and eighty days referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (2), if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not filing the same within that period. (3) Where the High Court is satisfied that a substantial question of law is involved in any case, it....
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....the establishment of the National Tax Tribunal by the Appellate Tribunal relating, among other things, to the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment." " Section 130F . Hearing before Supreme Cour t. - (1) The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), relating to appeals to the Supreme Court shall, so far as may be, apply in the case of appeals under section 130E as they apply in the case of appeals from decrees of a High Court: Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall be deemed to affect the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 130D or section 131. (2) The costs of the appeal shall be in the discretion of the Supreme Court. (3) Where the judgment of the High Court is varied or reversed in the appeal, effect shall be given to the order of the Supreme Court in the manner provided in section 130D in the case of a judgment of the High Court." 12. The history of the customs duty regime traced out above would go to show that after constitution of the Appellate Tribunal, the proceedings of which were/are deemed under the Act to be judicial proceedings,....
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....ifferent from the contours of the appellate power under Section 130E(a) against the order of the High Court. 14. The provisions of the Civil Procedure Code relating to the appeals to the Supreme Court against decrees of the High Court are contained in Section 109 of the Civil Procedure Code which is in the following terms: "109. When appeals lie to the Supreme Court.- Subject to the provisions in Chapter IV of Part V of the Constitution and such rules as may, from time to time, be made by the Supreme Court regarding appeals from the Courts of India, and to the provisions hereinafter contained, an appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment, decree or final order in a civil proceeding of a High Court, if the High Court certifies- (i) that the case involves a substantial question of law of general importance; and (ii) that in the opinion of the High Court the said question needs to be decided by the Supreme Court." 15. Chapter IV of Part V of the Constitution contains the provisions in Articles 132, 133, 134 and 134A which contemplate appeals to the Supreme Court from any judgment or decree or final order of the High Court in exercise of its civil, criminal ....
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....the order that would be under appeal i.e. (order of the appellate tribunal) may go beyond the inter se dispute between the parties and effect upon a large number of assessees. The issue, in such an event, surely will be one of general/public importance. Alternatively, the question raised or arising may require interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution. Such interpretation may involve a fresh or a relook or even an attempt to understand the true and correct purport of a laid down meaning of the Constitutional provisions that may come into focus in a given case. It is only such questions of importance, alone, that are required to be decided by the Supreme Court and by the very nature of the questions raised or arising, the same necessarily have to involve issues of law going beyond the inter partes rights and extending to a class or category of assessees as a whole. This is the limitation that has to be understood to be inbuilt in Section 130E(b) of the Act which, in our considered view, would also be consistent with the role and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India as envisaged under the Constitution. Viewed from the aforesaid perspective, the jurisdiction of the Su....
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....toms or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment, the amplitude of appeal is unlimited. But because the jurisdiction is unlimited, there is inherent limitation imposed in such appeals. The Tribunal has not deviated from the path of correct principle and has considered all the relevant factors. If the Tribunal has acted bona fide with the natural justice by a speaking order, in our opinion, even if superior Court feels that another view is possible, that is no ground for substitution of that view in exercise of power under clause (b) of Section 130-E of the Act." 19. On the basis of the discussion that have preceded, it must therefore be held that before admitting an appeal under Section 130E(b) of the Customs Act, the following conditions must be satisfied: (i) The question raised or arising must have a direct and/or proximate nexus to the question of determination of the applicable rate of duty or to the determination of the value of the goods for the purposes of assessment of duty. This is a sine qua non for the admission of the appeal before this Court under Section 130E(b) of the Act. (ii) The question raised must involve a substantial question of law which has n....