JINDAL I LTD Vs. COLLECTOR OF C EX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Stay Petition and the connected appeal arising from adjudication order No. 52/Ch.73/Add 1. Collr.(C)/CE/CAL-H/88, dated 31st October, 1988 passed by the Additional Collector of Central Excise, Calcutta-II, depends to a large extent on the question whether there is a comma following the words 'Flats' and before the words 'not exceeding 5 mm in thickness' figuring at Sl. No. 3 in the Table in Notification No. 90/88, dated 1-3-1988. THIS question will decide whether the benefit of the above said exemption Notification will be available to M.S. Pipes made from strips and skelps exceeding 5 mm in thickness. The Additional Collector while adjudicating the case refers to the Notification published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary - Part-II, Section-3, Sub-section (i) No. 94, dated 1-3-1988 where the comma figures at the strategic place referred to above. The said entry reproduced in the adjudication order reads as follows :-

(2.) On the contrary, the applicants M/s. Jindal (India) Ltd., Howrah had contended in the proceedings below that the comma is not there and the entry shorn of the crucial comma reads as follows :-

(3.) WHEN the Stay Petition was taken up for hearing, Shri P.K. Paul, learned Counsel for the Stay Petitioners refers to the points raised in the Petition and contended that the exemption Notification had been correctly availed of by them and the department's finding to the contrary is not justified. He also pleaded acute financial hardship for the applicants.