KESHAODEO SHIVPRASAD FIRM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER No. 1, a partnership firm of Indore, carries on the business of packaging of duty paid tea and the tea for such packaging which is received by it, has already undergone the process of manufacture, e.g. withering, rolling, fermentation and firing etc. The duty paid tea, received from its customers, is packed in packages of 25 grams to 1 Kg. and then sold by it. Petitioner No. 2 is a partner of the firm, petitioner No. 1.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, it was insisted that before the petitioners could carry on the business of such packaging of the duty paid tea, they must obtain Central Excise licence and so under duress and compulsion, in order to carry on the business, the petitioners had to take a licence under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

(3.) EXCISE duty is a duty payable under Section 3 of the Act. Section 3(1) is the charging section. All other provisions in the Act deal with the assessment and collection of excise duty and are clearly in the nature of machinery provisions. A reference to the relevant part of Section 3, therefore, needs to be reproduced. The relevant part of Section 3(1) of the Act runs thus :