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2021 (4) TMI 1168 - HC - Central ExciseLevy of additional duty liability - duty imposed by restricting the loss due to the drying of tobacco leaves (driage of tobacco leaves) to 10% as against 24% claimed by the petitioner - HELD THAT:- The proceedings before the Settlement Commission proceeds on the principal of trust. An applicant who was admittedly an evader of tax is expected to make a clean breast of his tax sins before the Settlement Commission and atone for mistakes and should undertake to pay the tax by making true and full disclosure before it - As an incentive to encourage such deviant assessee’s who opt to alter their deviant ways, a golden chance is given to them for settling the case under the Act. In return such assessee’s may be given immunity from prosecution and penalty under the scheme of the Act. Further, the 1st respondent Settlement Commission is manned by the senior officers drawn from the Central Excise, Customs and Service Department with vast experience. They have been given wide powers to not only accept the additional liability disclosed in the application for settlement but also give a deserving applicant a reprieve by granting immunity from prosecution and penalty. Earlier, this power also extended the power to grant waiver from payment of interest - In M/S SANGHVI RECONDITIONERS PVT. LTD. VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS. [2010 (2) TMI 6 - SUPREME COURT], the Hon’ble Supreme Court held that the petitioner having opted for settlement is not permitted to dissect Settlement Commission’s Order to accept what is favourable and reject what is not. The submission that there was no rational basis on which the 1strespondent Settlement Commission has unilaterally restricted the loss due to drying of the tobacco leaves to 10% as against 24% claimed by the petitioner cannot be entertained as it would also amount to interference with the finding of facts arrived by the 1st respondent Settlement Commission - There is perversity in the impugned order, Therefore, scope for judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is to be eschewed. Petition dismissed.
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