Arun Tandon, J. - (1.) Heard Sri Bharatji Agrawal Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Masnish Goyal Advocate on behalf of the petitioner, Sri Ramesh Chandra Shukla Advocate on behalf of respondents.
(2.) Petitioner M/s Triveni Glass Limited Iradatganj, Allahabad is a company engaged in manufacturing of sheet glass etc. covered under Heading 70.02 of the Scheduled to the Central Excise Tariff Act. The Officers of the Central Excise Department visited the production unit of the petitioner company on 16th July, 1994. On the relevant date the stock of excisable goods was physical checked and the statutory records were scrutinized. The Officers of the Department specifically noticed that several trucks loaded with glass sheets removed from the warehouse were ready to leave the factory premises. However, on verification of the statutory records, it was noticed that the goods loaded in Truck No. RJ-C 6577 had not been entered into the statutory records before being cleared. The Officers on verification of the daily stock account maintained by the company, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 53 of the Rules of Central Excise Rules, noticed that glass sheets valued at Rs. 1,36,22,656.82 manufactured and stored in different warehouses of the company had not been recorded in the statutory daily production account. The discrepancies noticed with regards to glass sheets manufactured on daily basis viz-a-viz the figure reflected in RT-12 suggested suppressed production. Similarly, discrepancies were also noticed as per the statement of the assessee before the Assistant Development Officers (Glass), Director General of Technical Development and the total production as per the RT-12 register. The Department therefore, being satisfied that the statutory records, maintained by the petitioner, could not be relied upon to determine the total production, proceeded to determine the normal production under Rule 173E of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 on the basis of the production capacity of the plant, as was disclosed by the General Manager Technical and Plant Manager, having decades of experience in the manufacturing of glass sheets.
(3.) Accordingly a show cause notice was issued to petitioner company on 12th July, 1995. The company was required to show cause as to why a total sum of Rs. 20,95,88,296/- may not be recovered under proviso to Section 11-A as well as penalty be not imposed in terms of Rule 173Q and as to why an order for confiscation of seized goods be not passed.;