Instructions regarding adjudication of Central Excise and Service Tax Cases booked by DGCEI. — Dated 10–2‑2015 — Central Excise

Cir­cu­lar No. 994/01/2015-CX F. No. 208/03/2012-CX.6

dat­ed the 10th Feb., 2015

Sub:     Instruc­tions regard­ing adju­di­ca­tion of Cen­tral Excise and Ser­vice Tax Cas­es booked by DGCEI.

Sir / Madam,

     Atten­tion is invit­ed to Noti­fi­ca­tion no 38/2001 — C.E (N.T) dt 26–6‑2001 as amend­ed from time to time where­by the offi­cers of var­i­ous ranks of Direc­torate Gen­er­al of Cen­tral Excise Intel­li­gence have been appoint­ed by the Board as the offi­cers of Cen­tral Excise of the cor­re­spond­ing ranks for exer­cise of all pow­ers under the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944 and rules made there under, through­out the ter­ri­to­ry of India.

2. Offi­cers of DGCEI, as Cen­tral Excise Offi­cers, issue show cause notices in cas­es inves­ti­gat­ed by them. These Show Cause Notices are adju­di­cat­ed by either the field Com­mis­sion­ers or by the Com­mis­sion­er (adju­di­ca­tion). Cas­es to be adju­di­cat­ed by Com­mis­sion­er (adju­di­ca­tion) were spec­i­fied by the orders of the Board.

3.  Pur­suant to the Cadre struc­tur­ing and reor­ga­ni­za­tion of CBEC, new posts in the rank of Prin­ci­pal Com­mis­sion­ers of Cen­tral Excise or Com­mis­sion­ers of Cen­tral Excise have been cre­at­ed in DGCEI, for var­i­ous pur­pos­es includ­ing for adju­di­ca­tion of cas­es. Addi­tion­al Direc­tor Gen­er­al (Adju­di­ca­tion) in DGCEI shall adju­di­cate cas­es where the show cause notices are issued by the offi­cers of DGCEI. The prac­tice of adju­di­ca­tion of DGCEI cas­es by field Com­mis­sion­ers shall also continue.

4. Pow­ers of the Board under sub-rule 2 of rule 3 of the Cen­tral Excise Rules, 2002, have been con­ferred on Chief Com­mis­sion­ers of Cen­tral Excise by noti­fi­ca­tion no. 11/2007‑C.E (N.T) dt. 1–3‑2007 to spec­i­fy the juris­dic­tion of the Com­mis­sion­er of Cen­tral Excise for the pur­pos­es of adju­di­ca­tion with­in his juris­dic­tion. Direc­tor Gen­er­al of CEI has juris­dic­tion over the ADGs. Now, the juris­dic­tion of Direc­tor Gen­er­al has been extend­ed over to Prin­ci­pal Commissioners/ Com­mis­sion­ers of Cen­tral Excise vide noti­fi­ca­tion num­ber 2/15 ‑C.E. (N.T) dt. 10–02-15 so that he may assign cas­es, where show cause notices have been issued by the offi­cers of the DGCEI, for adju­di­ca­tion to the field Com­mis­sion­ers also.

5. To assign cas­es for adju­di­ca­tion amongst the Addi­tion­al Direc­tor Gen­er­al (Adju­di­ca­tion) and the field Com­mis­sion­ers fol­low­ing gen­er­al guide­lines shall be followed:-

(i)   All cas­es where the duty involved is more than ₹ 5 crores shall be adju­di­cat­ed by the ADG (Adju­di­ca­tion).

(ii)  Cas­es to be adju­di­cat­ed by the exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er, when per­tain­ing to juris­dic­tion of one exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er of Cen­tral Excise, shall be adju­di­cat­ed by the said exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er of the Cen­tral Excise.

(iii)  Cas­es to be adju­di­cat­ed by the exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er, when per­tain­ing to juris­dic­tion of mul­ti­ple Com­mis­sion­er­ates, shall be adju­di­cat­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er in whose juris­dic­tion the noticee from whom the high­est demand of duty has been made falls. In these cas­es, an order shall be issued by the Direc­tor Gen­er­al, exer­cis­ing the pow­ers of the Board, assign­ing appro­pri­ate juris­dic­tion to the exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er for the pur­pos­es of adju­di­ca­tion of the iden­ti­fied case.

(iv)  Where DGCEI pro­pos­es appoint­ment of an adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty not in con­for­mi­ty with the above guide­lines, DGCEI shall for­ward such pro­pos­al to the Board.

(v)  Past cas­es pend­ing adju­di­ca­tion shall be exam­ined in the light of above guide­lines and DGCEI shall take appro­pri­ate action such as assign­ing the cas­es to the appro­pri­ate adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty, issu­ing cor­ri­gen­dum to the show cause notices, appoint­ing com­mon adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty or for­ward­ing pro­pos­al for appoint­ment of the adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty by the Board as may be necessary.

(vi) Cas­es to be adju­di­cat­ed by the offi­cers below the rank of Com­mis­sion­er shall be adju­di­cat­ed only by the field offi­cers in the exec­u­tive Com­mis­sion­er­ates and the above guide­lines shall apply mutatis-mutandis.

6.    Above guide­lines shall also apply mutatis-mutan­dis to the Ser­vice Tax cas­es booked by DGCEI. Noti­fi­ca­tion no. 2/15-Ser­vice Tax dt. 10–02-15 has been issued to pro­vide nec­es­sary juris­dic­tion to the DG, CEI over the Prin­ci­pal Com­mis­sion­ers and Com­mis­sion­ers of Ser­vice Tax in this regard.

7.    Dif­fi­cul­ty, if any in imple­ment­ing this cir­cu­lar may be brought to the notice of the Board. Hin­di ver­sion shall follow.

 (ROHAN)

Under Sec­re­tary (CX‑6)