ANTARCTIC INDUSTRIES LTD Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of afore-mentioned five appeals under Section 35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 arising out of an order dated 12.08.2011 passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short 'the Tribunal'). Since the facts are identical, therefore, all the appeals are taken up for hearing together.

(2.) The factory premises of M/s Mahajan Steel Rolling Mills (P) Ltd. (for short 'the Mill') was visited by the Preventive Staff of Central Excise Division-I, Ludhiana on 04.09.2001. It was noticed that there was no weigh bridge in the factory. On enquiry, it was informed that for weighment of goods cleared and inputs received, the mill were utilizing the services of a nearby weigh bridge i.e. M/s Mola Computerized Dharam Kanda, Singla Cycle Lane, Dhandari Kalan (for short 'the Weigh Bridge') on payment of weighment charges. Thereafter, the Preventive Staff visited the said Weigh Bridge and the statement of an employee was recorded. In the statement, it was stated that the abbreviations mentioned in the notebooks i.e. 'B.B.' & 'M.S.' meant 'Big Ben Exports' & 'Mahajan Steel' respectively. The visiting staff resumed five used weighment slip pads and three note books containing credit account of weighment charges for the period from 01.06.2000 to 04.09.2001 from the Weigh Bridge. On 06.09.2001, the Preventive Staff seized 20.815 MT of Rectangular Bars and also took into possession some record/documents from the Mill. The entries in the three note-books maintained by the Weigh Bridge for credit account of weighment charges were compared with the corresponding weighment slips issued and were found to be matching. It was observed that some of the transactions regarding which weighment slips have been issued from the Weigh Bridge were not being reflected in the Central Excise records maintained by the Mill. The business and residential premises of the owners of the Weigh Bridge were searched on 11.09.2001 and the weighment slips pertaining to the period commencing from 01.04.2000 onwards were recovered and taken into possession. From the records of the Mill after comparison with the record recovered from the Weigh Bridge, it was found that the Mill has manufactured and clandestinely cleared 8818.995 MT of their finished goods i.e. Rectangular Bars valued at Rs.11,42,38,110/- involving Central Excise duty amounting to Rs.1,82,78,098/- and that Mill has received 5961.291 MT of rawmaterial i.e. non-alloy steel ingots without account in the Central Excise records and without the cover of any Central Excise invoice/bill. Some of the manufacturers of non-allow steel ingots, who had cleared their goods clandestinely were identified. Three of such manufacturers are M/s Renny Steel Castings (P) Ltd., M/s Antarctic Industries Ltd. and M/s Paramount Steels Ltd. are the appellants before this court and whereas Dev Raj Gupta the appellant in CEA No.28 of 2012, is the Director of M/s Renny Steel Castings (P) Ltd.

(3.) The revenue issued separate but identical show cause notices to the manufacturers and to Mill as also to Dev Raj Gupta in respect of the proceedings under the Central Excise Act, 1944 (for short 'the Act') including notice for imposing penalty.