SUHRID GEIGY LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a company registered under the Companies Act and has its registered office at Ahmedabad. It has been manufacturing medicines. Its pharmaceutical products are liable to pay duty under Item 14E in the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act 1944 Under the Act the Central Excise Rules 1944 have been made. Rule 8 which is reproduced below enables the Central Government to exempt excisable goods from the whole or any part of duty leviable on such goods by publishing a notification in the Official Gazette. While exercising power under sub rule (1) of Rule 8 the Central Government can specify conditions subject to which the exemption will be available in respect of excisable goods. It reads as follows:-

(2.) Under sub-rule (1) of Rule 8 the Central Government issued on 1 April 1977 the following notification:- G.S.R. 163 (E). In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 8 of the Central Excise Rules 1944 and in supersession of the notification of the Government of India Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) No. 105/61Central Excises dated the 20th April 1961 the Central Government hereby exempts clinical samples cleared by a manufacturer of patent or proprietary medicines being medicines falling under Item No. 14E of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act 1944 (1 of 1944) from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon:- Provided that

(3.) The petitioner has therefore filed this petition in which Mr. Nanavaty has raised the contentions with which we now proceed to deal.