Small Scale Exemption survives where goods are not identical to those covered by another person's registered brand name.

Small Scale Exemption under the relevant notification is not denied merely because an SSI unit clears goods under a brand name registered in another person's name; the bar applies only where the assessee's goods are identical to the goods covered by the brand-name owner's registration. CESTAT, New Delhi held that clutch plates and pressure plates were different from the cotter pins, pinions and other pins covered by the brand-name owner's registration, so the mischief of the notification did not apply. The denial of exemption was therefore unsustainable and the assessee remained entitled to the notification benefit.

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Issues: Whether the benefit of the Small Scale Exemption Notification could be denied on the ground that the goods were cleared under a brand name registered in the name of another person, when the goods manufactured by the assessee were different from the goods covered by the brand-name owner.

Analysis: The exemption was denied because the assessee used the brand name "SIROCCO", which stood registered in the name of another manufacturer. The controlling principle applied was that the mischief of the relevant paragraph of the Small Scale Exemption Notification is attracted only when the goods manufactured by the SSI unit and cleared under another person's brand name are identical to the goods manufactured by the brand-name owner. Here, the assessee manufactured clutch plates and pressure plates, whereas the brand-name owner's registration related to cotter pins, pinions and other pins. Since the goods were not identical, the bar on exemption did not apply.

Conclusion: The denial of Small Scale Exemption was unsustainable, and the assessee was entitled to the benefit of the notification.

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