2019 (11) TMI 454

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....s of Section 127C(1) of the Act for admission/hearing thereof, raising various queries for response by the petitioner. One of the queries raised related to whether there was any case pending in the Appellate Tribunal or Court which would act as a bar to maintainability of the application in terms of the second proviso to Section 127B. 2.The petitioner filed a reply dated 15.02.2013 reiterating that the application was maintainable and praying that it may be proceeded with on merits, specifically reiterating at para-11 that there was no case pertaining to the show cause notice at issue, pending in the CESTAT or before any Court. 3.Notwithstanding the reply filed, the impugned order has come to be passed even without hearing the petitioner,....

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.... the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 has been committed : . . . . 6.Section 127B relates to an application for settlement of cases and sets out three bars for entertaining of an application by the Commission, the second, and the one relevant to this case, being the pendency of any cases before the Appellate Tribunal or any Court. 7.According to learned counsel for the petitioner, the application of the second proviso is only to those cases which relate to an assessment of duty and interest, pending either before the Customs Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) or any other Court. Thus, the pendency of proceedings for prosecution, should not, according to him, be construed as a bar to the mainta....

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....ppeal or a revision in connection with the levy, assessment or collection, which may be pending before the proper officer or (sic) Central Government on the date on which an application under sub-section (1) of Section 127B is made. In other words case relates to a proceeding and the proceeding is for the purposes of levy, assessment and collection of Customs duty. The second proviso to Section 127B(1) bars any application to be entertained by the Settlement Commission in cases which are pending with the Appellate Tribunal or any Court. Cases which are pending in this context is to be entertained as a proceedings for the levy, assessment and collection of Customs duty lying with Appellate Tribunal or any Court. In other words an application....

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....interest is with reference to Customs Act only. The offence discussed in this section means an offence relating to the case covered by the settlement. The proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 127H ibid reads as below: Provided that no such immunity shall be granted by the Settlement Commission in cases where the proceedings for prosecution for any such offence have been initiated before the date of receipt of the application under Section 127B.' 11.The Bench has proceeded to entertain the application based on the interpretation that the word 'case' utilised in the proviso should assume the same meaning as the definition of the word under the Customs Act 1962 which means 'any proceeding under this act or any other act for....