Dalveer Bhandari, J. - (1.) The questions of law involved in all these appeals are identical, therefore, we propose to dispose of these appeals by this com mon judgment. For the sake of convenience, the facts of Civil Appeal Nos.813-814 of 2004 are recapitulated as under :
(2.) The respondent M/s M.M.K. Jewellers is a unit in Santacruz Electronics Ex port Processing Zone, engaged in the manufacturing of plain/studded/unstudded gold jewellery for export from directly imported gold or from the gold procured from MMTC in terms of Notification No. 196/87-Cus dated 5-5-1987 which was further amended by Notification No. 155/92-Cus dated 30-3-1992 and Notification No. 177/ 94-Cus dated 21-10-1994. The said notification, inter alia, permitted graded per centage of gold wastage or loss depending on the value addition achieved, on the jewellery of the description specified therein, and provided that scrap, dust or sweep ings may be forwarded to the Government Mint by the importer for conversion into standard gold bars and returned to the said zone in accordance with the procedure specified by the Commissioner of Customs in this regard. Amongst other conditions, the said notification required that the importer shall maintain a proper account of import, consumption and utilization of the goods and of exports made by him. Public Notice No.2/1988 dated 28-7-1988 issued by the Commissioner of Customs, Airport in terms of the abovesaid notification required the units in SEEPZ to main tain registers as per pro forma annexed thereto.
(3.) On 11-11-1995, acting on information that the Gem and Jewellery Units in SEEPZ have been misusing the facility by showing excess manufacturing wastage or loss than permissible under the above mentioned notification, causing shortage in physi cal stock, claiming it to be lying in the form of dust, the Officers of the Mumbai Customs Preventive Commissionerate visited the premises of the said unit and veri fied the records from the period of inception of the unit and took the physical stock of gold followed by detailed investigations which resulted in the detection of a short age of 6410.885 grams of gold, valued at Rs. 28,72,076.48. The respondent unit was found to have not been maintaining the Wastage Account Register prescribed vide Public Notice No. 2/88 dated 28-7-1988.;