Govt. Notifies Big Changes in Recruitment Rules for Excise Settlement Commission: Effective April 2025

The Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) has recently issued an official notification dated July 31, 2025, informing that the President of India has introduced a few significant amendments to the Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission (Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, and Members) Rules, 2015.

The president has taken this action in exercise of its powers granted under Article 309 of the Indian Constitution, in line with Section 106 of the Finance Act, 2025. That section must have authorised such retrospective rule changes or restructuring of the Commission. Below are the changes made:

• These rules will now be known as the Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission (Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, and Members) Amendment Rules, 2025.
• These changes in the Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission (Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, and Members) Rules, 2015, will come into effect from April 01, 2025.

• In said 2015 rules, a new proviso is being added to Rule 7 after the second proviso that affects the tenure of existing officeholders. The following proviso will be added:

“Provided also that any person appointed as Chairman, Vice-Chairman, or Member holding office as such immediately before the date to be notified by the Central Government in this behalf, shall on and from such date cease to hold such office, and they shall be entitled to claim compensation not exceeding three months’ pay and allowances for the premature termination of the term of their office.”

• Meaning, any person appointed to the roles of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, or Member of the Commission immediately before a date that the Central Government will notify later will stop holding their office from that date onwards (this means their term will be ended prematurely). However, these people would not be left empty-handed. They will be entitled to claim compensation for the early ending of their term. The compensation can be up to three months’ salary and allowances.

In the Explanatory Memorandum, the government clarifies that no person’s interests will be harmed by this change. This likely means that although some officials will lose their positions earlier than expected, they are being compensated fairly, so it does not legally or financially harm them.