Page 34 - ELT_1st July 2020_Vol 373_Part 1

A8 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 373

There has been a tremendous loss to all stakeholders during the current lock-
down in terms of business in revenue. CESTAT has therefore, taken a stand that
there will be no summer vacation in 2020 in view of days lost in lockdown.

Amendments in Rules
In order to ease the functioning of Tribunal and address COVID-19
related situations leading to shut down of activities, the CESTAT has issued No-
tification No. 1/2020, dated 11-5-2020 providing for certain important amend-
ments in Procedure Rules with immediate effect and allows for -
(1) Filing of appeals in soft version (Pen drive)
(2) Seeking mobile phone number and e-mail id of appellant and re-
spondent
(3) Appeals and cross-objections to be filed along with soft copy in pen
drives.
(4) Paper book shall also be stored/filed along with pen drives.
(5) Allowing for hearing of appeals through appropriate video confer-
encing platform.
(6) Soft copy of stay application and impugned orders shall also be
filed on pen drives along with the application.
Procedure for CESTAT Appeals - Amendments at a glance
• Mobile contract and e-mail id of appellant/respondent to be men-
tioned (not of authorized representative) [Rule 8(1)].
• Appeal/cross-objection/application to be verified to the effect that
soft copy is a true copy of the original [Rule 8(4)].
• Appeal/cross-objection accompanying documents to be stored in
two pen drives and filed [Rule 9(5)].
• Soft copy of paper book to be stored in two pen drives and filed
along with paper book [Rule 16(8)].
• Hearing to be allowed to take place via video-conferencing platform
[Rule 19(3)].
• Stay application, relevant orders and documents also to be stored in
two pen drives and filed with application [Rule 28A(5)].
The various amendments in terms of said notification are discussed
hereunder :
Memorandum of appeal (Rule 8)
Rule 8 deals with contents of Memorandum of Appeal. Accordingly,
every Memorandum of Appeal shall set forth concisely and under distinct heads,
the grounds of appeals and such grounds shall be numbered consecutively and
shall be typed in double space of the paper. Every Memorandum of Appeal,
cross-objections, reference applications, stay applications or any other miscella-
neous applications shall also be typed neatly in double spacing on the A4 size
paper and the same shall be duly paged, indexed and tagged firmly with each
paper book put in a separate folder.
Amended provision of sub-rule (1) provides that “every Memorandum
of Appeal or Cross-Objection shall set forth concisely and under distinct heads,
the Statement of Facts and Grounds of Appeal or Grounds of Cross-Objection, as
the case may be, consecutively numbered and typed in double space of the pa-
EXCISE LAW TIMES  1st July 2020  34