- (1.) This order shall dispose of the aforesaid Civil Appeals as they have been filed by the company or its partners and the points involve are the same. For the sake of brevity, facts are taken from Civil Appeal No.4355 of 2002. Facts:
(2.) Appellant received supply order from 203 Engineer Regiment vide supply order dated 23.4.1988 for supply of 8 pre-fabricated steel helicopter hangars of the size of 18 mts. x 16.5 mts. suitable to accommodate two Cheetah Helicopters. Similarly, as per supply order dated 1.8.1987, they received order for supply of 50 pre-fabricated tubular shelters with outside cladding including roofing as per specification, detailed in that order itself. They classified these products as "steel structures" under Chapter Heading 73.08.
(3.) A show cause notice dated 05th May, 1990 by invoking the extended period of limitation under Section 11A of the Act was issued to the appellant alleging that they are evading excise duty on pre-fabricated shelters by mis-declaring their product as "steel structures" falling under Sub-heading 7308.90 instead of pre-fabricated buildings falling under Sub-heading 94.06 of the Central Excise Tariff Act and also by under valuation of the same. A demand of Rs. 47,78,107.71 for the period 1985- 86 to 198801989 was raised against the appellant and penalty was also proposed against all the partners. Mr. D.K. Mittal, partner of the company was asked to produce the documents relevant to the enquiry by issuing summons under Section 14 of Central Excise & Salt Act, 1944 (for short, the Act ) by the Senior Intelligence Officer. It was noticed from the purchase orders received from the defence authorities that the orders were for supply of complete pre-fabricated buildings and not for steel structures. Mr. D.K. Mittal, partner of the Company in his statement, recorded during the investigation, admitted that the orders received by the company were for supply of complete pre-fabricated buildings and supply was made accordingly.;