TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (4) TMI 1169
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.... Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chennai (in short the "Tribunal"). 2.The captioned appeal was admitted by virtue of order dated 21.12.2001, whereby, this Court directed that the following questions of law, be framed for consideration, by the Court: "1.Whether the Learned Single Member is at liberty to disagree with the views expressed by the Larger Bench of the Tribunal which is apparently in conflict with the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Jindal by Intermidia Limited vs. Collector of Customs, Mumbai, reported in 2006 (197) ELT 471 (SC)? 2.Whether the first respondent Tribunal is right in disagreeing with the speaking order recently passed by the Larger Bench in the case of GTC Industries which is against the pr....
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....order, which was passed in 13 appeals preferred before it. 5.1.To be noted, one such appeal, out of the 13 appeals, filed before the Tribunal, pertained to the appellant herein. 5.2.During the pendency of the appellant's appeal, another Assessee, namely, I.P.Rings Limited approached this Court, by way of an appeal, against the order impugned in the instant appeal. 5.3.The appeal of I.P.Rings Limited was registered as : C.M.A.No.3185 of 2010. 5.4.A Division Bench of this Court has passed a judgement in C.M.A.No.3185 of 2010 and, thus, uled, in favour of I.P.Rings Limited. The common order dated 18.06.2010, passed by the Tribunal, which is also the order impugned, in the instant appeal, as indicated above, has been set aside. ....
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....ered in I.P.Rings Limited case. 7.1.In so far as the remaining questions are concerned, i.e., questions no.1, 2 & 5, Ms.Hemalatha, cannot, but, submit that judicial discipline required the Tribunal to adhere to the decision rendered by a Larger Bench on the same issue. 8.Accordingly, having regard to the judgment in I.P.Rings Limited case, whereby, the common order dated 18.06.2010, passed by the Tribunal has already been set aside, questions No.3 and 4 are answered in favour of the Assessee in the instant appeal. 8.1.In so far as questions no.1, 2 and 5 are concerned, the said questions, on principle, will also have to be answered in favour of the Assessee. 8.2.The principle, in this regard, has been set out by the Supreme Cour....
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....Appellate Collectors who function under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. The principles of judicial discipline require that the orders of the higher appellate authorities should be followed unreservedly by the subordinate authorities. The mere fact that the order of the appellate authority is not acceptable to the department in itself an objectionable phrase and is the subject matter of an appeal can furnish no ground for not following it unless its operation has been suspected by a competent Court. If this healthy rules is not followed, the result will only be undue harassment to assessees and chaos in administration of tax laws." (emphasis is ours) 8.3.A close look at the aforesaid observations would s....