ELPRO INTERNATIONAL LIMITED UNION OF INDIA Vs. JOINT SECRETARY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE:ELPRO INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In Civil Appeal No. 1315/77. The correctness of the decision, of the High Court to the effect that the Operation Tables manufactured by the respondent-Company does not come within Item No. 40 in the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, and in view thereof no excise duty can be imposed on the same, has been challenged in this appeal filed by the Union of India, the Collector and the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Poona.

(2.) The respondent-Company filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the validity of the levy of excise duty by the authorities concerned on the Operation Tables manufactured by the respondent-Company and also X-ray Protective Screens manufactured by the respondent-Company. The authorities concerned had proceeded to hold that these items were "steel furniture" within the meaning of Item No. 40 in the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and, therefore, excise duty was leviable on these two items.

(3.) The material facts have been fully and correctly set out in the judgment of the High Court. It does not therefore, become necessary for us to reproduce the same.