While various Courts, Tribunals and Authorities had started hearing matters through virtual hearings, the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (‘CESTAT’) was not conducting any hearing for last 6 months due to COVID-19 situation.

CESTAT has now decided to begin virtual hearing at benches located at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Hyderabad with immediate effect. CESTAT has issued Public Notice No. 2 of 2020 dated August 10, 2020 (‘Public Notice’) extending this facility to pending appeals (currently applicable only for urgent applications from July 1, 2020). Important highlights of the Public Notice are as under:

• Party desirous of virtual hearing needs to send request (format prescribed in Annexure-II to Public Notice) to the CESTAT registry via email;

• Requests received from Monday to Thursday, will be listed in subsequent week;

• Maximum 4 matters will be heard daily;

• Appeal for which request is made, needs to be due for hearing or an early hearing application is already allowed by a separate order or as per direction of higher Courts;

• No other application should be pending before CESTAT in this matter; and

• Taxpayers and Advocates need to follow Standard Operating Procedure (prescribed in Annexure-I to the Public Notice) for conducting virtual hearings.

NITYA Comments: COVID-19 situation has led to paradigm shift in workings of Courts, Tribunals and Authorities across the country with Supreme Court and all High Courts leading the way for virtual hearings. The Public Notice comes up as a positive development after several representations made by regional Bar Associations. It is hopeful that facility of virtual hearings is soon extended to other benches of CESTAT and number of matters being heard daily will be gradually increased.

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