Will Take Action If Appeal Filing Process Not Streamlined: Supreme Court

The top court sought the presence of Solicitor General to which it was told that he was arguing the matter in some other court.

The Supreme Court on Friday took serious exception to the failure of finance department officials in finalising a proposal to streamline the process of filing appeals involving revenue and indirect taxation matters and warned it will not hesitate to initiate contempt against them and take coercive action. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah took note of repeated adjournments sought in an appeal against the order of the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal filed with a delay of 536 days. The top court sought the presence of Solicitor General to which it was told that he was arguing the matter in some other court. The bench said, "This is shocking. This court passed the order on February 15 on the proposal which was submitted by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and since then adjournment has been sought on one pretext or another. If something concrete does not come out by the next date of hearing, this court will not hesitate to initiate contempt against concerned officials and take coercive action".