M/S Dharampal Satyapal Ltd vs Dy.Commr.Of Cen.Exc.& Ors

After the filing of the aforesaid appeals, certain subsequent events took place. It so happened that vide Section 154 of the Finance Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act of 2003'), withdrawal of the benefit was effected from retrospective effect. Effect thereof was to withdraw the benefit given under the Notification issued earlier. Validity of Section 154 was questioned and the issue was considered by this Court in R.C. Tobacco Private Ltd. & Anr. v. Union of India & Anr.[1] This Court upheld the constitutional validity of the aforesaid provision and repelled the challenge so laid. The effect was to disentitle the appellant and other similarly situated from getting any such benefit by virtue of Section 154 of the Act of 2003 and knocking down the basis of the judgment of the High Court, which lost its validity on the aforesaid ground.

Insofar as the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) is concerned, both the appellant as well as the Revenue felt aggrieved thereby. The appellant was not satisfied with the order of remand and the nature of relief granted even after accepting that issuance of show-cause notice was mandatory before passing a valid recovery of demand. The respondents were aggrieved of the order passed on merit holding that show-cause notice was mandatory. Therefore, both the appellant as well as the Revenue filed appeals aggrieved against the order dated June 15, 2005 passed by the Commissioner (Appeals). The Customs Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short 'CESTAT') decided these appeals vide common order dated My 28, 2007. It reversed the orders of the Commissioner (Appeals), which resulted in allowing the appeal filed by the Revenue and dismissing the appeal preferred by the appellant. A perusal of the judgment of the CESTAT would reveal that it has primarily referred to the judgment of this Court in R.C. Tobacco and held that the matter stood concluded by the said judgment. The appellant challenged the order of CESTAT by filing Central Excise Tax Reference No. 1 of 2008 before the High Court of Gauhati. This Reference was dismissed by the High Court on December 01, 2011 on the ground of res judicata holding that orders dated May 18, 2004 passed by the Single Judge dismissing the writ petitions of the appellant had attained finality. The appellant preferred Review Petition seeking review of the said order, which has also been dismissed by the High Court on June 05, 2012. In the present appeals, the appellant has challenged both the orders dated December 01, 2011 passed in the Tax Reference as well as the order dated June 05, 2012 passed in the Review Petition.

By virtue of Notification dated July 08, 1999, the appellant was granted refund of the duty deposited in cash up to February 2001. After the enactment of Section 154 of the Act of 2003, recovery order dated June 03, 2003 was passed for recovery of the aforesaid amount which had been refunded to the appellant. Simultaneously, another order dated June 06, 2003 was issued asking the appellant to pay duty on the ground that such goods were no more exempted from payment of duty. In the appeals which were filed by the appellants before the Commissioner (Appeals) challenging the aforesaid orders, the Commissioner passed interim orders dated March 31, 2004 directing the appellants to pay the amount demanded by the aforesaid orders. This order dated March 31, 2004 of the Commissioner (Appeals) reflects that the Commissioner went into various issues raised by the appellant on the basis of which it was pleaded by the appellant that it had a good case on merits and, therefore, condition of pre-deposit be waived. Apart from the contention that no show-cause notice was given before passing those orders, it was even argued that by making the retrospective amendment in the form of Section 154 of the Act of 2003, the only effect was to validate the earlier actions but no demand of refund of any amount could be made and no refund of the amount already paid could be claimed. It was also argued that the matter of recovery of amounts was pending consideration of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) as well as in the Gauhati High Court. All these issues were considered by the Commissioner (Appeals), who gave his prima facie view thereupon observing that the appellants did not have strong prima facie case on merits resulting into the direction to deposit the entire amount within thirty days.

Natural justice is an expression of English Common Law. Natural justice is not a single theory – it is a family of views. In one sense administering justice itself is treated as natural virtue and, therefore, a part of natural justice. It is also called 'naturalist' approach to the phrase 'natural justice' and is related to 'moral naturalism'. Moral naturalism captures the essence of commonsense morality – that good and evil, right and wrong, are the real features of the natural world that human reason can comprehend. In this sense, it may comprehend virtue ethics and virtue jurisprudence in relation to justice as all these are attributes of natural justice. We are not addressing ourselves with this connotation of natural justice here.

For all these reasons, the appeals are dismissed.

MAY 14, 2015.