WELDCRAFT ORISSA PVT LTD Vs. ASSISTANT COLLECTOR OF CENTRAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER before us is a private limited Company registered under the Indian Companies Act of 1956 and engaged in manufacture of steel furniture which are excisable to duty at the rate of 20 per cent ad valorem. Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue and Insurance) by notification, dated 1st of April, 1971 (Annexre 3) provided exemption to the effect that the steel furniture up to the value not exceeding rupees one lakh cleared on or before the 1st day of April in any financial year by on bahalf of a manufacturer from one or more factories for some consumption would be exempted from excise duty, provided that the exemption would not be applicable to a manufacturer whose value of steel furniture cleared in the previous financial year had exceeded rupees two lakhs. Petitioner claimed exemption and approached the Assistant Collector of Central Excise at Cuttak for an appropriate order. The said authority heard the petitioner and by order dated 27 -8 -1974, refused to entertain the claim of exemption holding that the petitioner and a partnership firm by the trade name 'Metalex Industries' were in fact the business of one and the same Hindu Undivided family and, therefore, the benefit of the notification in question is not available to the petitioner. This application for a writ of certiorari is directed against the said order of the Assistant Collector.

(2.) * * * *

(3.) NOW we proceed to axamine the merit of the matter. Jagadish Lal, Bahul Lal and Rakesh Lal are admittedly members of a Hindu Undivided Family, These three persons constitute a partnership firm by name Matelax Industries. While this firm was functioning, these three partners with the wife of one of them and three outsiders formed themselves into a company by the name Weldcraft (Orissa) Private Ltd. (petitioner before us). It is not disputed that the petitioner Company would be entitled to the concession by way of exemption if its claim is considered independently and Metalex Industries is not brought into the picture.