UNION CARBIDE INDIA LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE writ petitions raise an interesting question as to the interpretation of Sec. 4(2) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (Central Act 1 of 1944 - hereinafter referred to as the Act). The following facts may be stated in order to appreciate the controversy involved.

(2.) THE petitioner is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1913, and having its registered office at No. 1 Middleton St. Calcutta. It is engaged in the manufacture, among other things, of electric dry batteries, for which purpose it has factories in several places in India, Two of such factories are in Tiruvottiyor and Guindy, Madras. Electric dry batteries are goods which are excisable under the Act under Item No. 31(1) of the First Schedule to the Act.

(3.) IT is the case of petitioner that the excise authorities have committed an error in holding that a uniform price has been charged irrespective of the distance from the factory to the various destinations. In fact, a uniform price given which is to prevail throughout India. But so far as transportation charges for which exclusion was sought under Sec. 4(2) of the Act, they were separately noted and given. They are not uniform. They vary according to the destinations. In the counter affidavit of the department sworn by the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, it is stated that the petitioner is admittedly charging uniform price throughout the country in respect of sales from their godown irrespective of their location or distance from the factory, that the petitioner has different assessable value in respect of each such sales after deducting the respective freight charges, that it is evident that the wholesale dealers are not charged that price which includes only the element of actual freight paid inasmuch as they charged equalised freight irrespective of the location and distance from their sales godown and that, therefore, Sec. 4(2) has no application in view of the fact that the petitioner is charging uniform price. IT is further stated that the cost of freight has been uniformly distributed and included in the cost structure.