- (1.) The appeal is directed against the order of a full bench of the customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate tribunal, New Delhi. Two learned Members held against the appellant-assessee and one Member held in its favour.
(2.) It is not in dispute that the appellant, on job-work basis, recorded sound on magnetic cassette tapes or spool magnetic tapes, these tapes being supplied by the customer. The majority view of the tribunal was that the appellant was engaged in the manufacture of goods which were excisable under Item 59 of the central Excise Tariff. The dissenting Member took the view that no manufacture was involved.
(3.) Tariff Item 59, so far as it is relevant, reads thus: "59.Articles of a kind used for sound or sound and image recording, whether recorded or not, namely: (1 Magnetic tapes of. . tapes, (2 Sound recorded. . tapes. (3 Cassette tapes for sound recording. (4 Sound recorded cassette tapes. ";