- (1.)These appeals raise a common question : Whether the appellants are entitled to the benefit of Notification No. 53/64, dated March 1, 1964, which reads as under :
"Notification

G. S. R. In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 8 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, the Central Government hereby exempts steel ingots falling under Item No. 26 of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), produced from fresh unused steel melting scrap, exclusively or in admixture with any other material scrap, exclusively or in admixture with any other material, from so much of the duty of excise as is proved to have been paid on such fresh unused steel melting scrap under Item No. 26 of the schedule provided that no set off of duty has already been availed of in respect of such scrap."

(2.)A plain reading of the notification shows that the Central Government granted qualified exemption on steel ingots falling under Item No. 26 of the first Schedule to the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944 (1 of 1944). This exemption is subject to the conditions that : (1) the steel ingots are produced from fresh unused steel melting scrap, exclusively or in admixture with any other material scrap; (2) the fresh unused steel melting scrap : (a) should have suffered duty under the said Item 26 of the first schedule and (b) no set off of duty has already been availed of in respect of such scrap; and (3) the quantum of exemption is limited to so much of the duty of excise as is proved to have been paid on such fresh unused steel melting scrap under Item 26 of the First Schedule.
(3.)The appellants made a large claim. But the claim is confined before us only to exemption of steel ingots on the ground that what was used in manufacture of steel ingots falling under Item No. 26 of the First Schedule, was steel melting scrap.