HINDUSTAN NATIONAL GLASS AND INDUSTRIES Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition filed in 1986 initially challenged two show cause notices issued by the Assistant Collector, Central Excise, Rohtak. By the first show cause notice dated 4.3.1986, the petitioner, which is a company engaged in the manufacture of glass and glassware falling under tariff item 23-A (5) of the Central Excise Tariff, was asked to show cause as to why the prices charged by the petitioner for the soft drink bottles to their ultimate customers should be not taken as the assessable value and consequently why sum of Rs. 31.73 lakh should not be recovered as differential excise duty on the clearance of soft drink bottles for the period 1.9.1985 to 28.2.1986. The second show cause notice dated 5.9.1986 pertained to the period 1.3.1986 to 3.8.1986 and the differential excise duty sought to be recovered thereunder was in the sum of Rs. 21.22 lakh.

(2.) The petitioner's case in the writ petition was that the respondents were seeking to levy excise duty on printed soft drinks bottles on which excise duty had already been paid, this time by adding the cost of printing the label. According to the petitioner this was impermissible since the printing of the bottles was done by a separate decorating unit of the petitioner and, in any event, it denied the benefit available to it under a trade notice No.18-CE/80 dated 7.2.1980.

(3.) The facts stated in the writ petition reveal that in respect of the period 4.3.1985 to 31.8.1985, a show cause notice dated 9.9.1985 had been issued which had been challenged by the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 4921 of 1985 filed in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. While the said writ petition was pending, the Assistant Collector on 16.7.1986 passed an order on the above show cause notice dated 9.9.1985 rejecting the petitioner's contentions. The petitioner preferred an appeal against the said order of the Assistant Collector on 15.10.1986 and that appeal was pending before the Collector (Appeals), Respondent No.6 herein in terms of the Central Excises Act 1944 ("Act").