Rule 173L refund for returned duty-paid goods cannot be denied on a new objection not raised in the notice.

Duty-paid excisable goods returned to the factory after exhibition and then reconditioned and recalibrated before re-clearance fall within Rule 173L, so refund remains admissible on those admitted facts. A denial based on non-maintenance of prescribed registers could not be sustained because that objection was not raised in the show cause notices and therefore could not be introduced at the appellate stage. The operative principle is that refund under Rule 173L depends on return of duty-paid goods for remaking, reconditioning or similar treatment, and a new ground not put to the assessee in the notice cannot defeat the claim.

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Issues: Whether refund under Rule 173L was admissible when excisable goods cleared on payment of duty for exhibition were returned to the factory, reconditioned and recalibrated, and whether a new objection not raised in the show cause notice could be relied upon to deny the refund.

Analysis: The goods had admittedly been cleared on payment of duty for exhibition, brought back after demonstration, and thereafter reconditioned and recalibrated before being cleared again on payment of duty. The refund notices had proposed rejection only on the footing that no re-processing had been carried out after return from exhibition. The later objection regarding non-maintenance of prescribed registers under Rule 173L was not part of the show cause notices and therefore could not be used against the assessee at the appellate stage. On the admitted facts, the case fell within Rule 173L, which contemplates refund where duty-paid excisable goods issued from a factory are returned to the same factory for being remade, reconditioned or subjected to similar treatment.

Conclusion: The refund claims were admissible under Rule 173L and the Revenue failed to make out any ground for interference.

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty-paid excisable goods are returned to the factory and are reconditioned or similarly processed before re-clearance, refund cannot be denied under Rule 173L on a ground not raised in the show cause notice.

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