TANSI STRUCTURALS LTD Vs. ASSISTANT REGISTRAR, CESTAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner (TANSI) is a State owned company and did some service by fabricating certain units for BHEL and on that ground certain liability for duty came to be imposed on them. It was stated that the work done by them was not a mere job work but they had supplied additional materials. The main matter is pending before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), South Zonal Bench, Chennai-6 in E/1146/2003.

(2.) Pending appeal, the petitioner-company took out an application for waiver of predeposit in E/PD/000555/2003. The waiver for pre-deposit is available on two grounds namely prima facie case and that predeposit will result in undue hardship. But on behalf of the petitioner the only one ground urged was prima facie case being available to them. The CESTAT rejected the argument by stating that even though certain assertions were made on the basis of the nature of the job they have done by them they could not rely on any judgments in support of their arguments. Therefore the CESTAT found that there was no strong prima facie case for the appellants. Under these circumstances, the Tribunal directed the appellants to deposit a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs in terms of Section 35(F) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 . Instead of complying with the said deposit, the petitioner has come forward with filing of the present petition.

(3.) At the time of writ petition this Court has passed an order to deposit a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs without prejudice to their contention. However aggrieved by that interim order, the TANSI had filed a Writ Appeal being W.A. No. 263 of 2005 wherein the Division Bench was of the opinion that making them to deposit of the amount will make their Writ Petition infructuous. The matter is now back in the form of final hearing of the Writ Petition.