Usually appeals are heard by a Full Bench consisting of the Chairman/Member(Judicial), a Member (Departmental) and Member(Accounts). There are statutory provisions to hear and dispose of appeals by a Single Member Bench constituted by the Chairman, where the disputed tax in appeal is below Rs.25,000/- and the order of assessment or penalty appealed against is issued by an officer not above the rank of a Commercial Tax Officer. So also, appeals having disputed tax below Rs.3,00,000/- can be heard by a Division Bench of the Tribunal consisting of two members other than Chairman/Member(Judicial). It is always mandatory that all the cases where disputed tax exceeds Rs.3,00,000/- have to be posted, heard and decided by a Bench consisting of the Chairman/ Member(Judicial). Similarly, the appeals involving questions of law also are to be heard by a Bench consisting of the Chairman/ Member(Judicial).
Sometimes in certain appeals filed before the Tribunal, the Deputy Commissioner holding the post of the Member (Departmental) had been the first appellate authority who heard and disposed of the first appeal against the same assessment. In such cases, that Member (Departmental) will not sit in Judgement on his own decision in first appeal as first appellate authority. Such cases will be set apart and posted before a Bench consisting of the Chairman /Member(Judicial)and the Member (Accounts) or, if possible, by a Bench consisting of the Member (Accounts) and another Member (Departmental).

There is no restriction with regard to disputed tax in hearing appeals in respect of KVAT appeals. In addition to Headquarters Bench, camp sittings are coducted in the Addl.bench Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad for hearing KVAT appeals. KVAT appeals filed in Addl.Benches at Kottayam and Kozhikode are transferred to Headquarters Bench Ernakulam for further processing.
An appeal to the Tribunal is presented before the Secretary/Assistant Secretary, either in person or by registered post. Secretary/Assistant Secretary receives the appeal, affixes his dated signature acknowledging receipt and sends it to the concerned section. The concerned section clerk examines the papers thoroughly and enters the same in €˜A €™ Register which is the permanent record of appeals containing all the movements of the appeal from receipt to disposal and dispatch of orders. After due registration, the Section Clerk prepares an acknowledgement card, which has been kept printed, gets the signature of the Secretary/Assistant secretary and sends the same to the appellant. A copy of the appeal memorandum together with its enclosures is sent to the Law Officer/ State Representative with the signature of the Secretary/Assistant secretary in the forwarding letter.
If the appeal is found defective in any respect, a defect notice is prepared pointing out the defect and communicated to the appellant asking him to cure the defect within a reasonable time. If the appeal is in order and if there is any stay Petition or other petitions like Delay Condonation Petition, etc., the appeal will be taken to file and the petition will be posted for hearing on a priority basis. When an appeal or petition is posted for hearing, the files will be sent to the Bench Clerk after issuing notice to both parties, the appellant through his counsel, if any, and to the Law Officer. If it is a State Appeal, the copy of the appeal memorandum with enclosures will be forwarded to the concerned assessee and he will be asked to file his Cross Objections, if desired, within the statutory period. The forms of Cross Objections, if any, will be filled by the assessee in quadruplicate.
On the posting date, the appeal is taken before the Bench and if it is heard finally and taken for disposal, the files will be submitted to the concerned Member or Chairman, as the case may be, as allotted by the Presiding Member in the particular Bench. Then the concerned Member/ Chairman writes draft order in appeal and sends it for circulation among the Member/Members who heard the appeal. After circulation of the draft order and approval of all the Members, one stretch of fair copy of the decision / order is taken by the Stenographer attached to the Chairman/Member. Then the draft order, as approved by the Members, who heard the appeal, together with one stretch of copies are entrusted to the Clerk-cum-Examiner. He takes sufficient copies of the order, either by typing or by taking Xerox Copies, compares the orders with the approved draft and after entering into the register sends the files along with the original and copies of the order to the Clerical Attender. He arranges the files, gives page numbers and stitches the files with the original order in the said file. Then he enters the details in the register kept by him and submits the copies of the order with files to the Secretary for signature. The Secretary/Assistant Secretary after perusing the files and orders affixes his signature and returns them to the Clerical Attender for dispatch to the concerned parties.
Copies of the orders are communicated to the appellant through counsel, if any, to the Law Officer with assessment and first appeal files, if any, handed over at the time of hearing of the appeal, to the concerned assessing authority, to the concerned first appellate authority, to the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner concerned, to the Deputy Commissioner concerned, to Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Thiruvananthapuram and also to the Deputy Commissioner (Law), Ernakulam. A separate copy is kept in stock file also. Thereafter, the original Tribunal file stitched with the original of the Tribunal Order in the appeal and all other papers like orders in interlocutory petitions, etc., is entrusted to the Salestax/Agril. Income tax Section Clerk, who will enter the relevant details in the appropriate columns of the €˜A €™ Register. He then sends back the files to the Clerical Attender for safe custody. A disposed file of the Tribunal has to be kept for 20 years before destruction.