SIDDARTH AGARWAL, SHRI ATUL Vs. CCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these appeals were directed against the common Order i.e. No. 42/2001 dated 31.10.2001 passed by the Commissioner, Central Excise -I, New Delhi. Accordingly, they were taken up together for hearing and are disposed of by this common order.

(2.) The issue raised in these appeals is the eligibility of the appellant manufacturers to the benefit of small scale exemption in view of affixing the brand name 'REIZ' on the goods manufactured by them. The appellant M/s Reiz Electrocontrols Pvt. Ltd. (REPL for short) and M/s Reiz Enterprises (RE for short) both use the same brand name 'REIZ' on their goods and both availed themselves of the small scale exemption since the total value of the goods produced by each of them in a financial year remained within the prescribed limit under Central Excise Notification No. 1/93.

(3.) The facts leading to the present dispute are that M/s RE ia a proprietary concern of Shri Atul Agarwal and is engaged in the manufacture of Electronic Fan Regulators, Dimmers and Remote Control Switches under the brand name 'REIZ' since 1988. In the year 1993, M/s REPL was constituted with Shri Atual Agarwal and his two brothers Shri Siddarth Agarwal and Shri Ravindra Agarwal as its Directors. M/s REPL engaged in the manufacture of Electronic transformers. Both the units manufacture their goods under a common brand name of 'REIZ'. The impugned order has held that since the brand name 'REIZ' belonged to M/s RE till its transfer to REPL in 2000, the Electronic transformers manufactured under brand name 'REIZ' by REPL till the transfer were ineligible for small scale exemption, inasmuch as under the notification a manufacturer affixing the brand name of another person was ineligible for the exemption. Similarly, it has been held that M/s RE became ineligible for exemption once the brand name REIZ was transferred on 30.3.2000 to REPL.