- (1.) IT is unfortunate that in a matter where the Department wants to rely upon certain documents grievance of the appellant is only to the extent that he has not received the complete set of documents. The matter went to the Customs, Excise and Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata. The said Tribunal in paragraph 10 of the impugned order took note of the contention of the parties relating to the documents in question and it has been observed that "learned Consultant appearing for the Appellants had acknowledged the fact that except the four documents listed above, all other documents were received by them from the Department." Then it has been observed that "regarding these above-listed four documents, learned Special Counsel for the Department has explained that all these documents were already supplied to them being listed in the Annexures to the Show cause. But, there has been some mistake in making reference of these documents in the body of the show cause notice." Thereafter, the Tribunal in paragraph 11 observed that "since all the documents had now been supplied to the Appellants, the main contention of the Appellants raised in the Appeals regarding non-supply of documents, has been redressed and in the circumstances."
(2.) IT appears from paragraph 10 and 11 of the impugned order that even after taking note of the contention of the appellant's representative that copies of all the four documents have not been supplied to the petitioners straightway the Tribunal reached to the conclusion that "since all the documents had now been supplied to the Appellants, the main contention of the Appellants raised in the Appeals regarding non-supply of documents, has been redressed and in the circumstances......". Thereafter, the Tribunal in paragraph 11 of the impugned order observed that "it is made clear that all issues are kept open. The Appellants are at liberty to file necessary reply to the impugned show cause on the basis of the documents supplied to them. The Department is also at liberty to issue a corrigendum, if felt necessary, incorporating the correctness of the documents vis-a-vis its place of seizure in the show cause notice, as was pleaded by the learned Special Counsel before us." Therefore, it appears from these portion of the order also that the Tribunal was also not sure whether the copies of all the documents were supplied and therefore, granted liberty to issue corrigendum incorporating the correctness of the documents vis-a-vis its place of seizure in the show cause notice. Therefore, it appears that the Tribunal has not decided the core issue relating to the supply of the copies of the documents. However, learned counsel for Revenue is given opportunity to give complete set of documents which the Department wants to rely upon to avoid all other controversies and for such a small issue the matter has already lingered by the parties for four years and that fact has been taken note of by the Tribunal. The present appeals have been filed as back as in July, 2012. Hence, the Department shall supply the copies of the documents in the Court itself on or before 26th June, 2013. Put up these cases on 26th June, 2013 on the top of the list. Tag the record of T.A. No. 15 of 2013 with T.A. No. 14 of 2013.;