Amendment of notifications issued under section 37 of Central Excise Act and validation of certain action taken.
110. (1) The notifications of the Government of India, in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) numbers G.S.R. 448(E), dated the 1st August, 1997, G.S.R. 503(E), dated the 30th August, 1997 and G.S.R. 130(E), dated the 10th March, 1998, issued under section 37 of the Central Excise Act, shall stand amended and shall be deemed to have been amended retrospectively in the manner as specified against each of them in column (3) of the Fourth Schedule, on and from the corresponding date mentioned in column (4) of that Schedule and accordingly, notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court, tribunal or other authority, any action taken or anything done or purported to have been taken or done under the said notifications, shall be deemed to be, and to have always been, for all purposes, as validly and effectively taken or done as if the notifications as amended by this sub-section had been in force at all material times.
(2) Notwithstanding the omission of section 3A of the Central Excise Act by section 121 of the Finance Act, 2001 (14 of 2001) and the expiration of the notifications referred to in sub-section (1), for the purposes of sub-section (1), the Central Government shall have and shall be deemed to have the power to make rules and issue or amend notifications under section 3A read with section 37 of the Central Excise Act, retrospectively at all material times.
(3) Any action taken or anything done or omitted to be done or purported to have been taken or done or omitted to be done under the notifications referred to in sub-section (1) at any time during the period commencing on or from the 1st day of August, 1997 and ending with the day, the Finance (No. 2) Bill, 2009 receives the assent of the President, shall be deemed to be, and to have always been, for all purposes, as validly and effectively taken or done or omitted to be done as if the amendments made by sub-section (1) had been in force at all material times and accordingly, notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court, tribunal or other authority,—
(a) any action taken or anything done or omitted to be done, during the said period in respect of any goods under the said notifications, shall be deemed to be and shall be deemed always to have been, as validly taken or done or omitted to be done as if the amendments made by sub-section (1) had been in force at all material times;
(b) no suit or other proceedings shall be maintained or continued in any court, tribunal or other authority for any action taken or anything done or omitted to be done, in respect of any goods under the said notifications, and no enforcement shall be made by any court, of any decree or order relating to such action taken or anything done or omitted to be done as if the amendments made by sub-section (1) had been in force at all material times;
(c) recovery shall be made of such amounts of duty or interest or penalty or fine or other charges which have not been collected or, as the case may be, which have been refunded, as if the amendments made by sub-section (1) had been in force at all material times.
Explanation.— For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that no act or omission on the part of any person shall be punishable as an offence which would not have been so punishable if this section had not come into force.
Notes on Clauses:
Clause 110 of the Bill seeks to amend notification numbers G.S.R. 448(E), dated the 1st August, 1997, G.S.R. 503(E), dated the 30th August, 1997 and G.S.R. 130(E), dated the 10th March, 1998 with retrospective effect i.e. from the date of issue of respective notifications, so as to provide that the Central Government had the power to notify rates of excise duty under these notifications by virtue of powers conferred on it by the erstwhile section 3A of the Central Excise Act.
