COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE Vs. AARTI STEEL LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Revenue has approached this Court by filing the present petition under Section 35H(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 ( for short 'the Act') praying for the issuance of a direction to the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, for referring the following questions of law to this Court for opinion :

(2.) Briefly the facts are that a show cause notice was issued to the as-sessee on 24-6-1993 proposing to raise a demand of Rs. 79,884.31 under Rule 9(2) of the Rules by extending period of limitation. The excise duty sought to be demanded pertained to the period January 1988 to June 1988. After considering the reply filed by the assessee, the Collector vide Order-in-Original confirmed demand of excise duty of Rs. 79,884.31 under Rule 9(2) of the Central Excise Rules (for short, 'the Rules') read with Section 11A of the Act by invoking the extended period of limitation available under proviso to Section 11A of the Act and also imposed penalty of Rs. 20,000/- under Rule 173Q of the Rules. Aggrieved against the order passed by the Collector, the assessee went in appeal before the Tribunal, who vide its order dated September 5, 2001, accepted the appeal by holding that the demand raised is beyond the extended period of limitation.

(3.) The only contention raised by the counsel for the revenue is that the returns for the period of June 1986 were required to be filed by July 5, 1988, accordingly, the show cause notice was not beyond limitation.