HINDUSTAN LEVER LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners- Hindustan Lever Ltd. inter alia carry on business of manufacturing soaps and detergents and have for that purpose inter alia factories situated at Haju Bunder, Sewree, Bombay, and at Calcutta. The 1st respondent is the Union of India. The 2nd and the 3rd respondents are the officers of the 1st respondent exercising powers under the provisions of the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944, and the Rules made thereunder.

(2.) According to the petitioners, under the pattern of distribution followed by them for the past several years, the petitioners after manufacturing and packing the said soaps and detergents transport the same from their aforesaid factories at Bombay and Calcutta to 41 depots maintained by the petitioners throughout India. Thereafter the petitioners supply the said soaps to their approximately 5000 redistribution stockists or wholesale dealers from such depots. Under the terms of business agree upon between the petitioners and their said stockists, the petitioners sell the said soaps and detergents to the said stockists at the applicable prices and, in addition thereto, recover transport charges and other associated charges described in the invoices as distribution charges but referred to and described as "delivery charges" in the present petition.

(3.) The petitioners say that since July 1973, they have been supplying such soaps and detergents from their factories at Bombay and Calcutta to their diverse stockists and have been recovering from such stockists a uniform delivery charge based on the amounts expended by the petitioners towards the costs of transport and associated expenses. Under the aforesaid practice, all the said stockists and the customers of the petitioners situated throughout India pay the same uniform delivery charges, regardless of the distance the goods in question have been actually transported. The aforesaid practice inter alia ensures that the various products of the petitioners, which include essential commodities, are available to consumers at a uniform cost, regardless of the location of such consumers.