Commissioner of Central Excise vs Southern Cooling Tower (P) Ltd.

All these appeals are taken up for hearing together inasmuch as all these matters were decided by a common judgment passed by the Tribunal. Therefore, to avoid conflicting judicial opinions, on the prayers of the learned advocates appearing for the parties, we take up hearing of these appeals analogously.

These are the appeals against order dated July 10, 2008, passed by the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Calcutta, in Appeal Nos. EDM 257, 282 and 283 of 2005.

Undisputedly, the appellate authority did not grant Modvat Credit in respect of certain items. Learned advocate for the appellant submitted before the Tribunal that the appellants had certain documents available with them and the appellants wanted to produce those documents before the original authority. The Tribunal accepted the plea of the learned advocate for the appellants and remitted the matters to the original authority to take into account the documents to be produced by the appellants in support of their claims.

If in the interest of justice the appellate court feels that for proper decision of a case further documents are needed, the appellate court may admit those documents in evidence irrespective of the fact that the party concerned omitted to produce them before the original authority. However, additional evidence can be taken into consideration only if they satisfy the test of relevance, veracity and credibility. Additional evidence in appeal is permissible if it is absolutely necessary for substantial justice between the parties. Merely on the prayer of a party that it wants to lead additional evidence in support of its claim, a contested order passed by the original authority cannot be set aside mechanically remanding the case before the original authority for fresh decision on the merits.

We, therefore, set aside the order of remand and remit all these appeals to the Appellate Tribunal with a request to consider the matter afresh in the light of our aforementioned observations.

The appeals stand allowed as above. The parties are present before us. No fresh notice shall be issued by the Tribunal. The Tribunal is requested to dispose of the appeal afresh within three months from the date of communication of this order.

In view of the disposal of the appeals, the connected applications for stay become infructuous. All the connected applications are disposed of accordingly.

We make no order as to costs in these appeals.

All parties concerned are to act on a xerox signed copy of this order upon the usual undertakings.