STATESMAN LTD Vs. ASSISTANT COLLECTOR OF CENTRAL EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a strange and peculiar case where the Central Excise authorities have proceeded to realise excise duty not from the manufacturer or producer but from a consumer out and out and that too on the basis of an exemption notification.

(2.) The facts : The petitioner, The Statesman Limited, is a Company incorporated under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1913 and has its registered office at Statesman House, No. 4, Chowringhee Square, Calcutta. The business of the Company is the publication and sale of newspapers including The Statesman which is published daily both in Calcutta and New Delhi.

(3.) The subject matter of the challenge in the instant writ petition is a purported show cause demand notice dated October 3, 1985 issued by the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Calcutta-1 Division. By the said show cause notice (in short, the impugned notice) the Company has been required to show cause why Central Excise duty to the tune of Rs. 19,29,583.23 for the period from May 1980 to May 1985 should not be demanded and paid by the Company under Rule 9(2) of the Central Excise Rules (in short, the Rules) framed under the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944 and Section 11A thereof. The allegations on the basis of which the said impugned notice has been issued are as follows :-