MADRAS ALUMINIUM COMPANY LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE first two writ petitions have been filed by Messrs madras Aluminium Co. Ltd. , hereinafter referred to as Malco, engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of wire rods. THE third writ petition has been filed bym/s. Industrial Cables ( India )Ltd. , manufacturer and seller of power cables and conductors made out of aluminium wire rods purchased from Malco and other manufacturers of wire rods.

(2.) MALCO started manufacturing E. C. Grade aluminium wire rods of 3/8'diameter popularly known as Properzi rods since January 1967, in the Properzi plant imported by them in the year 1966. The rods are machine wrung in nature and the process of manufacture of these rods is as under - "liquid aluminium produced in electrolytic pots after degasification and fluxing is fed through a cast iron tube into a rotating water cooled copper vessel, which is also water chilled on the outside. The cast rod is approximately triangular in shape and is continuous and is fed into a series of rollers having reducing diameter. The cross Section of the emerging rod is now approximately circular and the diameter is 3/8. This is then wound into a coil and sent to cable and wire manufacturers for final drawing and stranding into cables of wire. " *

(3.) LATER the High Court of Gujarat by its judgment dated 18-3-1972 in Special Civil Appln. Nos. 909 to 911 of 1970 (Prem Conductors Pvt. Ltd. v. Asstt. Collector of Customs) held that" * in respect of electrolytic aluminium rods other than extruded, no excise duty was payable under the Central Excise Tariff and that as such they were not, on import, liable to countervailing duty under Section 2-A of the Indian Tariff Act, 1934'. Taking advantage of the said decision of the Gujarat High Court, the petitioner company in W. P. 4631 of 1975 made a claim on Malco its seller, for the refund of the excise duty which it had paid as part of the price of the aluminium properzi rods. Apprehending that it will be exposed to similar claims from all the purchasers of Properzi rods in view of the judgment of the Gujarat High Court, Malco claimed on 24-11-1972, refund of a sum of Rs. 1, 24, 28, 992. 92 being the excise duty paid for the period prior to the introduction of sub-Item (aa) in Item 27 of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 by the Finance Act of 1969.