RAJARAM DWARKADAS CHHABRIA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has been carrying on business in the name and style of Messrs Raja Radio Company. The business is the manufacture, as the name of the establishment itself shows, of radios in which tape deck mechanisms are used. The petitioner is challenging by this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India a notice dated 25th of March, 1982 issued by the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Bombay demanding from the petitioner a sum of Rs. 76,684.84P. This amount represents the amount for which the petitioner took credit, according to the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, illegally during the months of May, 1981. The notice purports to be under the proviso to sub-rule (2A) of Rule 56A of the Central Excise Rules, 1944.

(2.) The petitioner's contention is that this notice of demand and the consequent detention of goods effected by the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, hereinafter referred to as "the respondent" he being the 2nd respondent in this petition, are without the authority of law, inasmuch as a notice of the type issued by him could have been issued only within six months after the date on which credit was taken by the petitioner. The petition involves interpretation of Rule 56A and in particular sub-rule (2) and sub-rule (2A) of the said rule.

(3.) Facts must now be necessarily stated in order to understand the basis of the challenge made by the petitioner to the impugned notice. In January, 1981, the petitioner imported tape deck mechanism and for the said purpose, he had filed an advance bill of entry on or about 31 of January 1981. Admittedly, the said goods, namely tape deck mechanisms, are classified under Tariff Item No. 68. The goods arrived some time in April 1981 and the petitioner paid a sum of Rs. 76.684.84P as countervailing duty which was leviable on goods under Tariff Item No. 68. The duty was accordingly paid to the Customs. Thereafter, on 2nd of May, 1981, the petitioner wrote to the 2nd respondent, requesting the latter to allow the petitioner to take credit of the countervailing duty paid on the tape deck mechanisms imported by him, which were to be used by him in the manufacture of stereo cassette recorders. The stereo cassette recorders themselves, if they are imported, would be covered by Tariff Item No. 37AA.