Policeman, Prosecutor and Judge - all rolled into one - DRI to Adjudicate?

Ref: TIOL-DDT 2410 dated 05.08.2014 regarding Cadre Review in CBEC.
The increase in the number of officers will not enhance the quality of work. An interesting example in this matter is Tribunal’s decision in the case of CCE, Delhi-III v/s Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India (P) Ltd. as reported in 2014 (305) ELT 140 (Tri.-Del) in which the Hon’ble Tribunal has condoned the delay of 199 days in filing appeal by the Department.
As per the facts contained in Para 5 and Para 6 of this decision, an Order-in-Appeal was reviewed and a note was put up by the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial) for filing an appeal against the said Order-in-Appeal. The Commissioner signed on the note-sheet with the remarks “Accepted” but this was misconstrued by the Departmental Officers as acceptance of the Order-in-Appeal. Hence appeal was not filed, when an enquiry was made by the Divisional Office about the outcome of the Review proceedings, the appeal was filed before the Tribunal with condonation of delay application. The Tribunal accepted the explanation offered by the Revenue, the appellant being a Government Department, as sufficient cause for condoning the delay.
Why these highly qualified Officers selected by UPSC and trained at NACEN ignore the fact that they are not attempting objective type questions while doing Office work? If the Commissioner concerned would have written the words “Proposal for Review accepted” or “Appeal may be filed” on the note-sheet, the delay of 199 days could have been averted.
*Pankaj Jaroli

pankaj jaroli 05/08/2014