CAT Slaps ₹20,000 Cost on CBIC Chairman for Non-Compliance & Non-Appearance Despite Tribunal Order [Read Order]

The Cuttack Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) recently imposed a cost of ₹20,000 on Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) for failing to appear before the Tribunal and file the required compliance report despite clear and repeated directions by the Bench.

The contempt petition was filed by the Applicant Deepak Niranjan Nath Pandit against the Secretary and Chairman of the CBIC challenging his suspension before the Tribunal. The Tribunal had, by an order dated 12 September 2025, directed the respondents to either file a full compliance report in accordance with its earlier directions or produce a stay order from the jurisdictional High Court.

The CAT had further directed that, failing such compliance, the Chairman of the CBIC,must remain personally present before it on the next date of hearing.

When the matter came up for hearing on 23 October 2025, the applicant, represented by Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, refreshed the directions given by the Tribunal earlier.

Appearing for the respondents, A.C. Deo informed the Bench that a miscellaneous application had been filed seeking exemption of the CBIC Chairman’s personal appearance on the ground that a writ petition filed by the department was listed before the High Court on 29 October 2025.

The Bench of Pramod Kumar Das, Member (Administrative), and Sudhi Ranjan Mishra, Member (Judicial), found that despite clear directions, the respondents had neither complied with the order nor ensured the personal presence of the CBIC Chairman.

The Tribunal observed that the respondents “should have either filed a full compliance report or produced a stay order, failing which the CBIC Chairman should have ensured his appearance personally or through video conferencing.

The Tribunal imposed a cost of ₹20,000 on the CBIC Chairman, directing that the same be paid to the applicant by the next date of hearing after considering the personal prayer raised by the CBIC officers’ counsel.

The Tribunal further directed the respondents to file the compliance report or the stay order by the next hearing, failing which Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Chairman of the CBIC shall personally appear before the Bench on 11 December 2025 at 10:30 a.m.

Accordingly, the matter has been listed for 11.12.2025.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates