High courts are not the "custodian" of the
revenue department, the Supreme Court has said while dealing with a petition
challenging a Bombay High Court order that stayed a tribunal's direction for a
refund of Rs 256.45 crore to a firm.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Manmohan observed that
prima facie, the high court could not have stayed the order after holding that
the appeal filed by the Commissioner of CGST and Central Excise, Belapur
Commissionerate, was not maintainable.
"A high court is not the custodian of the revenue,"
the apex court, which stayed the high court's June 12 order.