1961 (12) TMI 1 - SUPREME COURT

Whether the terms of Rule 10A of the Excise Rules, 1944 were insufficient to cover the cases of the appellants and that in consequence the demand made on them and the attempt to recover the sums by resort to the coercive process provided for by Section 11 of the Central Excise Act was illegal and without statutory authority?

Held that:- a duty of excise is a tax-levy on home-produced goods of a specified class or description, the duty being calculated according to the quantity or value of the goods and which is levied because of the mere fact of the goods having been produced or manufactured and unrelated to and not dependent on any commercial transaction in them. The duty in the present case satisfies this test and therefore it is unnecessary to seek other grounds for sustaining the validity of the tax.

The words "deficiency in duty if the duty has for any reason been short-levied" are, in our opinion, wide enough to include cases of deficiency arising like those in the circumstances of the present case, viz., where 8 annas out of the 14 annas of the duty has been collected in the first instance but 6 annas remains to be collected. We consider, therefore, that there is no substance in the objection that Rule 10A is not wide enough to cover the recovery of the duty from the appellants. Appeal dismissed.