K.C. Agarwal, J. - (1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for a Writ of Mandamus seeking a prayer for quashing the notices dated December 10, 1975, and June 7, 1976, sent by the Superintendent, Central Excise Shikohabad, District Mainpuri calling upon the petitioner Company to obtain Central Excise Licence under Rule 174 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944.
(2.) THE petitioner is a Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956. It carries on business of manufacture and sale of diverse electrical and electronic articles, including lamps and components. It has its own factories at various places in the country where the goods are manufactured: The petitioner holds licences in respect of excise goods which are manufactured by it at various factories. It pays excise duty on such goods under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). Besides manufacturing its own lamps at its factory at Thana (Bombay), the petitioner also purchases electric lamps and tubes from Hind Lamps Limited (briefly stated as 'the company'), having its registered office and factory at Shikohabad. The said Company carries on business of manufacture and sale of electric bulbs, fluorescent lamps, miniature bulbs and components of its bulbs and lamps etc. At its factory at Shikohabad, the company sells lamps and tubes, referred to above, to the petitioner and other leading Companies such as M/s Bajaj Electricals Limited, Crompton Greaves Limited, General Electric Company of (India) Limited and Mazda Lamps Company. Sales of the goods by the Company to the petitioner and other customers, referred to above, is on principal to principal basis in the ordinary course of business. The Company manufactures goods according to its own schedule, budget, capacity, availability of raw materials, supply of power and maximum supplies to customers, against their orders. The lamps manufactured by the Company are supplied to its various customers, including the petitioner. These lamps are, however branded differently in accordance with the agreement which the Company has with its customers. These specifications are not stipulated by the customers but are the Company's own specifications conforming generally to the Indian Standard Specifications. The entire production of lamps is under the exclusive control and management of the Company. The case of the petitioner was that it had not engaged the Company nor was the Company its contractor for the manufacture of any one of its goods The Company was also not agent of the petitioner. Under the Act or the rules made thereunder every manufacturer of an excisable article is required to obtain a licence. As the petitioner was not a manufacturer of the lamps purchased by it from the Company, it did not obtain any licence with respect to the said, lamps.
(3.) IN October 1975, a Trade Notice No. 236 of 1976 was issued by the Collector Central Excise, Kanpur, to the Superintendent, Central Excise, calling upon him to insist on obtaining of manufacturing licence by persons who had no factories of their own and who got excisable goods manufactured in the duly licenced factories according to their own specifications, under their own brand names or trade names... The Collector's view was that in the light of the revised definition of the term .'Manufacturer' under Section 2(f) of the Act, a person falling in the aforesaid category was required to obtain a manufacturing licence under Rule 174 of the Rules made under the Act.;