SABU RUBBER WORKS Vs. COLLECTOR OF C. EX.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER challenges a notice to show cause evidenced by Ext. P 31, Petitioner is a manufacturer of tread rubber. Apart from being a manufacturer, he is also active in spear -heading the movement against the highhanded actions of the officials of the Collectorate of Central Excise, Cochin. The officials have been on a rampage with raids, searches and seizures and harassment against small scale industrialists which has rendered it impossible for such industries to function. The motivation behind all this is the scheme of award formulated by the Government of India in the year 1985.

(2.) THE ill -will generated towards the petitioner has resulted in successive raids of his premises in October, 1987 and later. Nothing incriminating was found. But the respondents were out to harass the petitioner. They raided the premises of other businessmen as well. In one such raid of M/s. A. V. Thomas and Company Ltd., they got invoices related to one Sabu Rubber Products, Vallachira, which relates to a different firm unconnected with the petitioner which is Sabu Rubber Works, Pulamanthol. However, the respondents have prepared recovery memo with telltale interpolations with a view to cause damage to the petitioner. All this has led to the show cause notice Ext. P 31 which the petitioner challenges on various grounds numbering 63.

(3.) THE Petitioner has already filed the objections. It is for him to pursue his objections before the first respondent and seek adjudication. It is not as if the petitioner is left without a remedy, in as much as any decision of the first respondent is liable to correction in appeal by an independent high powered Appellate Tribunal functioning under the Act.