TMI Blog1994 (12) TMI 181X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... icity Board. These appeals are therefore, being disposed of by this order. 2. The Punjab State Electricity Board is engaged, among other activities, in the manufacture of electrical transformers. For this purpose, some units are engaged in the conversion of copper and aluminium wires into transformer coils. One such unit is the Sub-Divisional Officer Coil Fabrication, Amritsar. The coils fabricated by this unit of the Board were subject to Central Excise duty by the orders of the Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Amritsar. In coming to his conclusion, the Assistant Collector held that the conversion of electric wires into transformer coils is a process of manufacture, and that the transformer coils are new products which are differen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to manufacture was wrong in fact. Subsequent decisions of the Tribunal had been based only upon this decision and on the view expressed in it, that conversion into coils did not amount to manufacture. He cited a decision of the Tribunal to say that cutting and slitting plastic films amounts to manufacture. If such a simple operation could be considered a manufacture, there was all the more reason held that in the present case, where process was more complex, manufacture takes place. He distinguished the decision of Tribunal - 1989 (43) E.L.T. 457 - Filtronics Ltd. v. Collector of Central Excise, because, unlike in that case there was no question that all the coils were intended to be used in transformers. Therefore, they have to be conside ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , amounted to marketability. 5. Shri Lachman Dev, Consultant for the Electricity Board argued that the earlier decision of the Tribunal had become final no appeal having been filed and issue could not be reopened. On the principle of res judicata, he cited the Supreme Court decision - State of Uttar Pradesh v. Nawab Hussain - AIR 1977 (SC) 1680. To reinforce his contention that the manufacture is not taken place, he relied upon a decision of the Honourable Supreme Court in Bharat Forge and Press Industries (P) Ltd. v. Collector of Central Excise (S.C.) - 1990 (45) E.L.T. 525. He relied upon the decision of Bombay High Court in Shakti Insulated Wires Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India and Others - 1982 (10) E.L.T. 10 6. In our view, it is not n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing with his usual fairness that it was not as if a coil could be readymade and fitted in a transformer. He agreed that a coil comes into existence as a coil only when the wire is wound around the coil for the required number of turns. In the Bhor Industries case the Supreme Court had laid down the test that it is necessary to find out whether articles are known in the market as separate, distinct identifiable commodities in order to determine whether they are marketable. Applying this test, it becomes clear that the coil cannot be considered marketable. One cannot go and buy a coil as one could buy a transformer. Further a coil, even if wound according to a customer s order does not emerge as a commodity by itself. It comes into existenc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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