TMI Blog1976 (4) TMI 204X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t Collector and confirmed by the Collector in revision and by the Government of India on further revision, was unjustified. The orders made by the Assistant Collector, the Collector and the Government of India confirming the demand for differential duty would, therefore, have to be quashed and set aside and the amount of differential duty recovered from the appellants pursuant to these orders would have to be refunded to the appellants. - C.A. 1277 OF 1968 - - - Dated:- 30-4-1976 - P. N. BHAGWATI, A. C. GUPTA AND SYED MURTAZA FAZALALI, JJ. For the Appellant : Hardev Singh, Ishwar Chand Jain and R. S. Sodhi For Respondents : S. N. Prasad and S. P. Nayar JUDGMENT The Judgment of the Court was delivered by BHAGWATI, J. This appeal by special leave raises a short question as to what is the correct amount of import duty chargeable on pot motors when imported separately from Rayon Spinning frames: do they fall within Item 72(3) or Item 73(21) of the First Schedule to the Indian Customs Tariff? The facts giving rise to the appeal are few and may be briefly stated as follows: Some time in 1956 a licence for setting up a plant for manufacture of Rayon was granted to one ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n of the said plant. The pot motors are required for 24 Spinning frames having 2 sides each. On each side of these frames, 66 motors are connected. Hence total initial requirement of pot motors for running 24 frames is 3168. In view of general experience with this type of plant approximately 25% additional motors are required for trial runs and commissioning 4000 Nos. Of not motors should, there fore, be supplied for first installation of the Rayon plant. These pot motors are of very high speed and are specially designed for use in spinning frames for manufacturing rayon thread. They run at 7700 RPM and are designed for a rated voltage of 130 V. at 130 cycles per second for use in circuits of less than 10 amps. As such, these motors can in no circumstances be used for any other purpose excepting as stated above. The accessories of these motors are specially designed to suit particular size of spinning pots as well as spinning chambers. The smooth running of these motors is achieved after a great research by using flexible elastic and hollow shaft, special rubber bushings for support as well as specially designed bearings, to take care of severe stresses, which are normally encoun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the Collector had: "-examined the merits of the case in question and it is his consideration that the duty was correctly chargeable because the Spinning Machinery excluding the pot motors were being imported under one contract from Japan and the pot motors were being imported under another contract from Germany. Separate importation under a separate contract from a separate country would not justify treatment of the two consignments as one article, when the goods are not specified in the Tariff as one article. Therefore, he does not see any reason to revise the Assistant Collector s order concerning the demands." The appellants thereupon preferred a revision application to the Government of India, but by a short and pithy order dated 23rd September, 1967, the Government of India rejected the revision application stating that they had carefully considered the revision application B but saw no reason to interfere with the order passed by the Collector. This led to the filing of the present appeal against the order of the Government of India with special leave obtained from this Court. Though the appellants, initially, when the hearing of the appeal commenced, raised two or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hese pot motors were clearly and indubitably essential for the working of the Rayon Spinning machines and, as pointed out by the appellants in their representation dated 8th December, 1961, they were "specially designed for use in spinning frames for manufacturing rayon thread" and for the purpose, they were given special shape and quality which was not only not essential for their use for any other purpose but actually rendered them incapable of being used for any other purpose. This position, as pointed out by the appellants in their representation dated 8th December, 1961, was not disputed either by the Assistant Collector in his communication dated 19th January, 1965 or by the Collector in his order dated 23rd December, 1965 rejecting the representation of the appellants and the Government of India also did not controvert this position in its order dated 23rd September, 1967. If the Assistant Collector or the Collector or the Government of India did not accept the facts set out in the representation of the appellants dated 8th December, 1961, we should have expected a clear statement to that effect in the orders of these authorities. The Assistant Collector maintained sphinx li ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... chinery . Otherwise, the conjunction and would have no meaning. In fact, the sentence would become ungrammatical if the words "not otherwise specified" were read to govern "component parts". This construction also receives support from the description of the component parts which follows the words not otherwise specified . This description starts with the word namely , which shows that it is intended to be a complete description of the component parts covered by this item and that would not contextually fit in with "component parts - not otherwise specified". There can be no doubt that on a plain grammatical construction, the words "not otherwise specified" qualify "machinery" and not "component parts" and, there- fore, the pot motors imported by the appellants, which satisfied the other requirements of Item 72(3) could not be held to fall outside that Item, because they were otherwise specified in Item 73(21). Item 72(3) is a specific Item which covers these pot motors as against Item 73(21)which is a general item and hence it must be held that these pot motors were assessable under Item 72(3) and not under Item 73(21). The original assessment of these pot motors made by the A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , as indeed, in some kinds of cases, with the proliferation of Administrative law, they may have to be so replaced, it is essential that administrative authorities and tribunals should accord fair and proper hearing to the persons sought to be affected by their orders and give sufficiently clear and explicit reasons in support of the orders made by them. Then alone administrative authorities and tribunals exercising quasi-judicial function will be able to justify their existence and carry credibility with the people by inspiring confidence in the adjudicatory process. The rule requiring reasons to be given in support of an order is, like the principle of audi alteram partem, a basic principle of natural justice which must inform every quasi-judicial process and this rule must be observed in its proper spirit and mere pretence of compliance with it would not satisfy the requirement of law. The Government of India also failed to give any reasons in support or its order rejecting the revision application. But we may presume that in rejecting the revision application, it adopted the same reason which prevailed with the Collector. The reason given by the Collector was, as already pointe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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