MANGLAM CEMENT COMPANY LIMITED Vs. ASSISTANT COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent Appeal is directed against thejudgment of the learned Single Judge dated 3.5.1989 in a writ petition filedunder Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The brief facts are asfollows:

(2.) Appellant No. 1 is a company incorporated under the CompaniesAct 1956 and is engaged in the manufacture of cement having a totalcapacity of manufacture of 4 lacs tonnes of cement in a year.The factory of the appellant was established in the year 1980-81 andstarted production of cement thereafter. A Press Note was issued by theGovernment of India on 28.2.1982 announcing certain benefits to newly installed cement units. Under the scheme announced in this Press Note, the existingcement units were required to supply 66.6% of their installed capacity as levycement at a controlled price, however the new units which started commercialproduction after 1.1.1982 and units which were designated as sick units wererequired to give 50 /o of their installed capacity as levy cement. The appellantclaims that under this Press Note they were entitled to the benefit which anyother new unit would get because, according to the appellant, they started theircommercial production after 1. 1.1982. The appellant, therefore, approachedthe government and on 8.12.1983 a letter was issued by the Joint CementController, Ministry of Industry, Government of India communicating to theappellant that the date of commercial production may be adopted as 2.1.1982for fixing the levy quota of cement in the case of the appellant. Further incentive was announced by the then Prime Minister in his capacity as the UnionFinance Minister on 29.4.1987 to new units and a relief in excise duty at Rs.20.00 per metric ton was announced for new units which manufacture portlandcement. This relief in excise duty was available to those units which commencedproduction between 1.1.1982 to 31.3.1986 provided the new units achieve aminimum capacity of 30 tonnes of production. On the same day a notificationwas issued by the Government of India announcing relief in excise duty tocement units which commenced production on the first day of January 1986and ending with 31st day of March 1986. The said notification reads thus :NOTIFICATIONNo. 174/87-Central Excises.

(3.) . Being aggrieved by this decision of the Assistant Collector, CentralExcise & Customs, the appellant filed an appeal before the Collector (Appeals),Central Excise. The Collector (Appeals) Central Excise vide his order dated3.10.1988 rejected the appeal. He observed that as per the wordings of the notification, cement units commencing production during the period commencingfrom 1/01/1982 and ending with the 31/03/1986 were entitled toexemption, however since the appellant had commenced production for the firsttime on 28.2.1981 and had been maintaining prescribed Central Excise recordsince then and had admitted that they were carrying on production from timeto time during the year 1981 .they were not entitled to the relief sought underthe said notification. Being aggrieved by this decision of the Collector (Appeals),Central Excise, the appellant filed the writ petition in this Court which wasdisposed of by the impugned judgment.