Page 19 - GSTL_16th July 2020_Vol. 38_Part 3

GST PITARA

GST Departmental Clarifications

CESTAT - Procedure for e-hearing of urgent applications. — (1)
Observing that lockdown declared by the Government due to COVID-19
pandemic has affected the regular hearing of appeals by all the Benches of the
Tribunal since 16-3-2020 and taking into consideration decision of the Hon’ble
Supreme Court, in Suo Motu Writ (Civil) No. 5 of 2020, by which Courts across
the country have been permitted to conduct legal proceedings by leveraging
technology and noticing that a system of hearing of cases through video confer-
encing has emerged as an alternative for regular Court sitting in some of the
Courts and Tribunals in the country, the CESTAT has notified procedure to dis-
pose cases of urgent applications, w.e.f. 1-7-2020, through e-hearing in all its
Benches.
(2) The standard operating procedures, manner of listing of cases, pro-
tocols to be observed and the technical requirements have been detailed in
Annexure-I. The parties who desire that such applications should be heard
through video conferencing may file a request in the Form as prescribed in
Annexure-II, to the concerned Assistant Registrar. The system of e-hearing of
urgent Applications will remain in force until further orders.
(3) Following procedure and requirements have been prescribed for ef-
fective and meaningful e-hearing of Applications :
(i) Jitsi meet has been chosen as video conferencing platform, which is
an open source software and is available for download at
https://play.google.com/store/ apps/details?id=org.jitsi.meet.
(ii) To have a proper hearing on the video conferencing platform it is
necessary that the exchange of information is seamless and without
interruption for which minimum technical and infrastructural re-
quirements have been prescribed.
(iii) Any party desirous of getting an application of urgent nature heard
by video conferencing may send a request, as prescribed in Annex-
ure-II, to the Registry by e-mail.

GST LAW TIMES  16th July 2020  19