MINUTES OF THE
SPECIAL GENERAL BODY MEETING HELD BY AICEIA, PUNE CIRCLE ON 10.02.2012 AT PUNE
( Circular
No.AICEIA / PCELC / 01/2012 )
A Special
General Body meeting of the office bearers and members of AICEIA, Pune Circle, was
held at Pune on 10.02.2012 at 18.15 hours in the canteen at I.C.E. House, Pune.
The meeting was chaired by the President and co-chaired by the General
Secretary of the AICEIA, Pune
Circle.
The
primary agenda of the meeting was to discuss the Order Passed by the Hon’ble
Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Mumbai in (Original Application) O.A.
No. 86/2008 filed by Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association and one of their
member -officer.
The
General Secretary, Shri Rajesh Ingale, informed the members that the Central
Executive Committee (CEC) of AICEIA had met at Hyderabad on 27th and 28th
January 2012. One of the issues discussed there was the order passed by the
Hon’ble CAT in the Income Tax case. He further informed that one of the
decisions taken at the meet was that the Inspectors should also file a similar
OA before the Mumbai Bench of CAT on similar grounds. After filing of the case
by the individual /s, the All India body of AICEIA would authorize the West
Zone, represented by Sanjay Srinivasan (Joint Secretary, AICEIA, West Zone) to
approach the Mumbai Bench of CAT and file an application to implead the AICEIA
in the O.A.
After
discussions, members agreed that approaching the CAT was the best method to get
justice as repeated representations to the CBEC had gone unheeded. It was
informed that the AICEIA, Pune Circle
had already made representations to the Member (P &V), the Chairman (CBEC)
& the Finance Ministry through various representations. Also, a VIP reference
was made to the Finance Minister by the All India Body. The following points
were agreed to during the meeting.
- One Inspector
from each of the four Commissionerates (namely Pune-I, Kolhapur, Pune-III and Pune Customs)
should file individual cases in the CAT so that each Commissionerate is
represented. During the meeting, Shri C.V. Verma, Inspector, volunteered
to represent Pune-III Commissionerate which was appreciated by the
members. It was decided that the officers of the other Commissionerates
would be finalized within a week i.e. by 17th Feb. 2012. The
number of applicants would be decided after consultation with
- Shri R.R.
Shetty, Advocate who represented the Income tax case should be approached
and requested to represent the Central Excise and Customs Inspectors also
as he was already well versed in the matter. It was also decided to fix a meeting at
the earliest with the Advocate to request him to take up the case of
Inspectors of Central Excise & Customs also.
- A
committee would be set up to draft the Original Application and collect
all requisite documents required to file the applications. The committee
would comprise of Shri Sanjay Srinivasan, Shri Sanjay Gokhale, Shri Joslyn
D’Souza, Shri Sanjay Kumar (IV) & Shri Sanjay Purohit. Incase of
differences of opinion, any issue shall be resolved by consultation with
the AICEIA, Pune Circle.
However, any member could be called upon at any time to provide assistance
in the matter.
- The
entire exercise upto filing of individual applications should be completed
by 02nd Week of March, 2012 at the latest.
- It was decided that no individual member would have to bear the
cost of litigation as the entire cadre of Inspectors would stand to
benefit by a positive outcome to the application. Accordingly, it was
decided that all Inspectors would contribute Rs.1000/- (Rupees One
Thousand only) each towards the legal costs involved in the litigation
process. Irrespective of whether an Inspector is a member of the
Association or not, he/she is requested to contribute the amount & be
a part of the above process so that the benefit of decision of CAT flow to
each of them. As only Inspectors who have joined / were promoted as
Inspector upto March, 2004 would stand to gain by the decision of CAT,
only they are required to contribute to the above fund for this specific
issue.
- It was
decided to set up a special group for legal justice to be called “PUNE
CENTRAL EXCISE LEGAL CLUB” (PCELC) which would be responsible for all
litigations approved by the AICEIA, Pune Cirlce.
- It was resolved
that funding for PCELC would be based on contributions and / or donations
by members of association / PCELC. The initial funding would be by way of
contributions as mentioned at point no. 5 above
and a separate bank account would be opened and operated for the
same. The receipt and expenditure
statement would be prepared on quarterly as well as on annual basis and
would be available in the Association room for inspection by any member.
The same would also be mailed to the members on quarterly basis.
- It was
resolved that the funds so collected would be deposited in a bank account
to be opened in the name of “PUNE CENTRAL EXCISE LEGAL CLUB” in the Bank
of Maharashtra, ICE House Branch, Sassoon Road, Pune.
- It was
resolved that three Inspectors namely Mrs. Savani Kulkarni, Mr. VPR
Mudaliar & Mr. KN Sinha who volunteered to handle the accounts would
be the treasurers of the fund. The bank account of the fund would be
operated by signature of any two out of the three treasurers.
- It was decided that the utilization of
the above fund would be decided by the above committee in consultation
with the AICEIA, Pune Circle
and / or by the contributors meeting.
- It was decided that as & when the
above account is decided to be closed by approval of all the contributory
members, the balance amount, if any, would be equally distributed amongst
the contributors to the above fund. Non – contributory Inspectors or any
other officer would have no claim whatsoever on any balance amount of the
fund.
- It was decided that in future PCELC would
also take up other matters as approved by the AICEIA, Pune Circle, for legal redressal of
common service matter related issues.
- All records (cases as well as accounts)
pertaining to PCELC shall be kept in a separate cupboard (to be purchased by PCELC)
in the AICEIA, Pune Circle’s office located on Third Floor, ‘D’ Wing, ICE
House, Pune.
- Subsequent developments in the above matter
shall be communicated by way of circulars to be issued by the AICEIA, Pune Circle upon
recipt of information from the above mentioned Committee.
In
addition to the above points, one of the members also brought up three issues
for discussion in the meeting. The issues and the decisions taken are as below:
(a)
Avoidance of Customs tenure by proceeding on “Loan” basis to other
formations/Directorates.
After discussions, it was decided
that the association would first discuss the matter with Commissioner (CCC)
and, if necessary, seek appropriate amendment in the Transfer Policy to plug
this loophole.
(b)
Non-uploading of TDS details:
The President informed that this
issue had already been taken up in the JCMs of Pune-III as well as Pune-I
Commissionerates. He further informed that in both the JCMs, the Commissioners
had assured that all TDS returns would be uploaded shortly.
(c)
Considering of outside Pune postings for repeat customs tenure.
The General Secretary assured that
the issue would also be taken up along with point no. (a) above.
The
meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the President, General Secretary and
all members.
