GAGAN FREIGHT CARRIERS Vs. COMMISSIONER OF C. EX.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above captioned appeals have been filed by the appellants against the common impugned order of the Commissioner of Central Excise who had imposed penalty of Rs. 5 lakhs each on them under Rule 209A of the Rules.

(2.) The facts are not much in dispute. The appellants No. 1 and 3 constitute one transport company. They have got one at Surat and the other at Amritsar. Similarly, appellants No. 3 and 4 are also one company, having one office at Surat and the other at Amritsar. They all are engaged in the transportation of the goods from Surat to Amritsar and vice versa. The appellants No. 1 and 2 transported fabrics from Surat to Amritsar under the cover of GRs. The delivery of the goods was to be taken by the consignees at the Amritsar offices of both these companies. Acting on a prior information that the consignments of processed man made fabrics had been cleared by the manufacturers at Surat without payment of duty for Amritsar, the Officers of Central Excise conducted raid on the offices of the transport companies at Amritsar and seized the goods lying in their godowns. However, out of those seized goods, some had been claimed by the consignees, while others are still in the custody of the Excise Authorities. The names in the GRs of the consignors and consignees were found to be incomplete. The appellants had been panalised under Rule 209A of the Central Excise Rules for having transported the goods with the knowledge that those were cleared without payment of duty by the manufacturers.

(3.) The learned Counsel has mainly contended that there is no iota of evidence on the record to prove the knowledge of any of the appellants about the non -duty paid character of the goods at the time of loading the same at Surat or even at the time of unloading at Amritsar. Therefore, no penalty under Rule 209A could be imposed on them.