About Us
The Particulars of
its Organisation, functions and duties:
Directorate of Legal Affairs (DLA) was set up vide Ministry's circular F. No.
A-11019/31/2001-Ad.IV dated the 27th June 2002 with its headquarters at New
Delhi under the supervisory control of a Commissioner rank officer. the functions of the Directorate have been enumerated in the
said circular and are summarized as under:
(i) Directorate shall be the
nodal agency to monitor the legal and judicial work of CBIC and its field
formations;
(ii)
Directorate will work in close co-ordination with CBIC, CDR's office, Law
Ministry, Directorate of Systems, Chief Commissioners, Central Agency Section
of the Supreme Court of India, Senior Law officers, Government Counsels, etc.
(iii)
It will also maintain and monitor the database on the cases decided by or
pending with the CEGAT, CAT, High courts and the Supreme Court;
(iv)
To intimate the field formations about important decisions of the Supreme Court
and High courts which are accepted by the Department in consultations with the
various nodal Ministries;
(v)
Directorate shall recommend and maintain panels of standing Counsels/Panel
Counsels for various High Courts and also keep an approved panel of eminent
lawyers well versed with the customs and Central Excise Laws and other administrative
matters who may be engaged by the Department for handling important cases.
The powers and duties of officers and employees:
Powers
to the officers as available under the Central Excise Act, Customs Act and
Service Tax Act are available to the officers of the Directorate of Legal
Affairs. With respect to the duties, the various functions as enumerated as S.
No. (I) above are required to be carried out by the officers of the Directorate
by keeping close co-ordination with CBIC, Law Ministry, Directorate of Systems,
Chief Commissioners, Central Agency Section of the Supreme Court of India,
Senior Law officers, Government Counsels in High Courts and Central
Administrative Tribunal CDR's office, CESTAT. Registry, field formations etc.
The officers of the Directorate are also monitoring the cases pending in
Supreme Court, High Courts, CESTAT and CAT. The Directorate is also maintaining
and monitoring the database of the cases decided by or pending with the Supreme
Court; High Courts, CESTAT and CAT.
The procedure followed in
the decision making process, including channels of supervision and
accountability
The
procedure followed in the decision making process is as under:
Commissioner-Additional/Joint
Commissioner-Deputy/Assistant Commissioner-Superintendent-Inspector.
With
regard to the Administrative matter-proposals are processed at the section
level and put up to the Deputy/Assistant Commissioner-Additional/Joint
Commissioner and finally approved by the Commissioner.
With
regard to the functions other than the Administrative matter-proposals are
processed at the Inspector/Superintendent level and put up to the
Deputy/Assistant Commissioner-Additional/Joint Commissioner and finally
approved by the Commissioner.
The norms set by it for
the discharge of its functions:
Directorate of Legal Affairs is the nodal agency to monitor the legal and
judicial work of CBIC and its field formations. Accordingly DLA is required to
work in close co-ordination with the Legal & Judicial Sections of CBIC. The
Directorate is checking the cases likely to be listed before the Supreme Court
on daily and weekly basis and taking follow up action accordingly.
DLA
is also maintaining and monitoring the legal and judicial database for CBIC on
the cases pertaining to CESTAT, CAT; High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Directorate has also been entrusted with the work relating to compilation of
various monthly and quarterly reports relating to the cases pending in various
Courts and tribunals on behalf of CBIC.
In
view of the nature of work undertaken by the Directorate of Legal Affairs, the
norms are fixed in such a way so as to reduce the number of cases pending
before various appellate fora by proper liaisoning with the Board's office, counsels and field
formations. Similarly, other main objective is to collect and maintain the
authentic database of all the cases for proper monitoring.
The rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its
control or used by its employees for discharging its functions:
Central
Excise Act, Customs Act, Service Tax Act and various other related and allied
Acts, Foreign Trade Policy, Rules and Regulations, instructions issued from
time to time by CBIC, etc., are used by the officers and staff of the
Directorate of Legal Affairs.
Statement of the categories of
documents that are held by it or under its control
(i)
Day to day administration related files for running the Directorate;
(ii)
Correspondence
files related to specific court cases.
It
may also be mentioned here that since the Directorate is the nodal agency to
monitor the legal and judicial work of CBIC and its field formations, the
Directorate handles no document of any public interest.
The particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or
representation by the members of the public in relation to the formulation of
its policy or implementation thereof.
Members
of the public may visit the office on working days and may submit their
representations, suggestions, etc., if any, for consideration.
Statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of
two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advise,
and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other
bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible
for public.
No
Boards, Councils, Committees etc., have been formed in this Directorate.
Directory of its offices and employees
This
information has been notified by the Directorate separately.
Monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including
the system of compensation as provided in its regulations
This
information has been notified by the Directorate separately.
Budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all
plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made
This
information has been notified by the Directorate separately.
Manner of execution of subsidy programmers, including the amounts allocated and
the details of beneficiaries of such programmes:
Not
applicable.
Particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorizations granted by
it:
Not
applicable.
Details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in
an electronic form:
Computerized
database of the cases pending before Supreme Court is available with the
Directorate.
The particulars of facilities available to citizens for
obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading
room, if maintained for public use.
This
information has been notified by the Directorate separately.
Names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers :
Please
see the list of CPIOs provided separately at www.cbec.gov.in/info-act/aa-cpio/aa-cpio-idx
Such other information as may be prescribed -