Ruma Pal, J. - (1.) The dispute in these matters arises out of an exemption which had been granted by the Central Government to new industries by Notification No. 32/99-CE dated 8th July 1999 issued under Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (referred to hereafter as the Act). The parties in the various proceedings which are being disposed of by this judgment, represent industries manufacturing cigarettes on the one hand (whom we will refer to as "the petitioners") and the Union of India and the excise authorities on the other (who are described as "the respondents"). Almost all the petitioners are job workers for large tobacco companies. They set up their units under agreements with the large tobacco companies and admittedly produced the cigarettes with the brand names of those companies. The few exceptions to this are noted subsequently.
(2.) In December, 1997 the Government of India had announced a separate industrial policy for the North Eastern Region of the country which proposed to stimulate synergetic development of industries in the region by giving a package of incentives which included exemption from excise duties, transport subsidies, capital investment subsidies, interest subsidies and other benefits.
(3.) Pursuant to this policy, a number of notifications were issued by the concerned Ministries in the Government, the relevant ones for our purpose being the Excise Notifications Nos. 32/99 and 33/99 dated 8th July 1999 by which diverse benefits were given. Briefly stated, under the first notification all excisable goods were exempt from duty under the Act if the goods were produced by new industrial units which commenced their commercial production on or after 24th December, 1997 and were located in defined areas specified in the annexure to the notification. The benefit was given for a period of 10 years from the date of publication of the notification or from the date of the commencement of commercial production whichever was later. The second notification exempted goods produced in specified industries located in areas outside the growth centres. The procedure envisaged for obtaining the exemption under both notifications was that the manufacturer of goods in such industrial units would have to pay excise duty and subsequently claim refund from the excise authorities.;