The High Court has no power to entertain an appeal filed against the order of the Tribunal.

1. Aggrieved by the order dated 22.11.2010 passed by the learned single Judge in W.P. No. 26466 of 2009 wherein and by which the Writ Petition filed by the first respondent seeking for a direction to the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal to pass detailed order in line with the pronouncement made in the open Court and gist of the decision recorded and signed on 04.6.2009 in Appeal No. C/07/2009, was allowed, the Department has come up with the present appeal.

2. From the materials, it is seen that the appeal filed by the first respondent, a private company, in Appeal No. C7/2009 before the second respondent Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal [for short, 'Appellate Tribunal'] as against the order of the Commissioner of Customs, Chennai dated 10.11.2008, was posted for hearing before the Appellate Tribunal on 04.6.2009 and after hearing the detailed arguments from both sides, the Appellate Tribunal pronounced the order in the open Court allowing the appeal and the gist of the said pronouncement was recorded and signed by the Members on 04.6.2009 but the matter was entrusted to the Member (Technical) for drafting a detailed order giving the reasons. Subsequently, vide internal note dated 22.6.2009, the matter was posted for re-hearing on 30.6.2009. As against the same, the first respondent Company filed the Writ Petition seeking for a direction to the Appellate Tribunal to pass the detailed order in line with the pronouncement made in the open Court and gist of decision recorded and signed on 04.6.2009.

3. Learned single Judge, on consideration of the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and the materials placed on record, allowed the Writ Petition directing the Appellate Tribunal to pass a detailed order in the appeal filed by the first respondent in consonance with the gist of the decision pronounced, recorded, signed and dated in open Court on 04.6.2009 within 15 days from the date of receipt of the order. Feeling aggrieved, the Department has preferred this Writ Appeal.

4. Heard the learned counsel representing the Department as well as the learned counsel appearing respondents and perused the records.

5. The main contention of the learned counsel representing the Department is that the Tribunal immediately after hearing the appeal on 04.6.2009 observed that "appeal allowed" without gist of the order, and according to him, it is only formal expression of the Tribunal to allow the appeal in the open Court without dictating any reasoned order and such an oral order announced in open Court but not followed by a detailed written order giving reasons, is not a valid order in the eye of law. He further submitted that the note dated 22.6.2009 given by the Technical Member for re-hearing of the appeal was accepted by the Vice President (Judicial Member) and, therefore, prayed for interference of this Court and also sought for direction to the Tribunal to rehear the appeal as gist of the order was not passed by it on 04.6.2009.

6. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the first respondent would submit that once the operative portion / gist of the decision finally pronounced in the open Court after hearing the arguments and the Order Sheet is duly signed by both the Members, the appeal before the Appellate Tribunal had attained finality and the same cannot be posted for rehearing. According to him, once the Tribunal becomes functus officio, it cannot modify or alter the decision already pronounced in open Court. He submitted that the learned single Judge has rightly appreciated the facts in its proper perspective and sought for dismissal of the appeal.

7. Before going into the merits of the case, it is necessary to extract Rule 26 of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1982 [for short, 'CESTATE Rules'] which contemplates as to how a judgment has to be pronounced. Rule 26 reads as follows:-

"Rule 26: Every order of the Tri