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Provision was made in the Finance (No.2)
Act.. 1980 for establishing the Customs,Excise and Gold(Control)
Appellate Tribunal now Customs, Excise & Service Tax
Appellate Tribunal (referred to for the convenience as
the CEGAT and now as CESTAT). The Tribunal was constituted
with affect from 11.10.1982 attached with Ministry of
Finance (Department of Revenue) Notification No. 223/82
- Customs dated 11.10.1982 (Appendix 1).
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The
Tribunal, is headed by its President. There is provision
for a Senior Vice-President and Vice-Presidents (There
are two at present.) Besides Judicial Members and Technical
Members. For the purpose of constitution of Benches, the
President and Vice-Presidents are also Judicial or Technical
Members as the case may be.
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The
work of the Tribunal has been distributed among various
Benches, comprising Special Benches (5 as on 16.3.1986)
located at Delhi and Regional Benches, one each located
at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai.
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Special
Benches deal with matters relating, among other things,
to disputes about the rate of duty of custom or of excise
(referred to for convience, as classification disputes)
or to the value, of goods for purposes of assessment of
duty of customs or of excise (referred to as valuation
disputes) . Special Benches consist of not less than two
members, at least one being a Judicial Member and one
a Technical Member. Regional Benches deal with matters
other than those falling within the jurisdiction of the
Special Benches. These consist of two Members - one a
Judicial Member and one a Technical Member. There is also
a provision for Single Member Benches which are competent
to dispose of cases within the specified monetary limits
falling within the jurisdiction of Regional Benches
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