1983 (8) TMI 261

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..... Tariff and, if so, whether it is covered by the expression "ready-to-serve beverages" occurring in S. No. 9 of exemption Notification No. 17/70-C.E., dated 1-3-1970. 2. The facts in brief are that the respondent company submitted classification lists on 30-6-1979 and 21-6-1980 declaring `Milkafe' under Item 1B and claiming exemption under the aforesaid notification. The classification suggested by them was approved provisionally under Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. Later, after hearing the respondent company, the Asstt. Collector held that though the product fell under Item 1B, it was a ready-to-serve beverage and hence not exempt under the notification. In appeal, the Appellate Collector held that it was not a ready-to-se .....

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..... decided in the light of the popular meaning of the expression ready-to-serve beverage. Though the Chemical Examiner who tested the sample of the product and gave his report on 21-12-1979 said that the sample was not a ready-to-serve beverage, this part of the Chemical Examiner's report consisted of his own views on classification which were beyond his field of knowledge and beyond his jurisdiction as a Chemical Examiner assigned the task of analysing the composition of the sample. The quasi-judicial authorities in the Department were not bound by what the Chemical Examiner stated by way of his personal opinion on classification nor by what was stated in the Department's tariff advices and circulars. 3. The respondent company stated t .....

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..... rved food put up in unit containers and ordinarily intended for sale. The product cannot, therefore, be classified under the residuary Item 68. The only question now remains to be determined is whether in the form it was cleared from the respondent company's factory, it could be described as a ready-to-serve beverage. The expression "ready-to-serve beverage" has a popular meaning and is well understood in common parlance as referring to beverages which one can drink straightway just after opening the bottle or can. A product like `Milkafe' which requires some further effort to make it drinkable - heating the water or getting chilled water, adding it to the product and stirring the mix to get a homogenous liquid - cannot be called ready-to-s .....

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