SSI excise exemption and third-party brand name use: retrospective trademark registration did not override the exemption bar.

SSI excise exemption was unavailable where specified goods bore a brand name or trade name belonging to another person. The later trademark registration, even if stated to operate retrospectively, did not extend the trademark law fiction to the excise exemption scheme. The assessee remained required to prove lawful entitlement to use the mark or establish abandonment of the third party's mark, and contemporaneous agreement and surrounding evidence were treated as supporting the Department's case. On the material described, no convincing proof of abandonment or lawful transfer was shown, so the demand was sustained.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to the small-scale industry exemption when the biscuits were cleared under the brand name or trade name "Meghraj" said to belong to another person, and whether later trademark registration with retrospective effect or alleged abandonment of the mark altered that position.

Analysis: The exemption under Notification No. 1/93-C.E., as amended, was unavailable where specified goods bore the brand name or trade name of another person who was not eligible for the exemption. The assessee failed to dislodge the Department's reliance on the contemporaneous agreement and surrounding evidence indicating use of the mark as belonging to another concern. The later registration certificate under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, even if issued with retrospective effect, could not extend the deeming fiction under trademark law to the excise exemption scheme. The burden remained on the assessee to prove that the mark had not been used as the brand name of another or that it had been abandoned, and no convincing proof of abandonment or of lawful transfer was produced.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to the SSI exemption, and the demand was sustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: For excise exemption notifications that deny benefit where goods bear the brand name or trade name of another person, a retrospective trademark registration does not by itself confer exemption, and the assessee bears the burden of proving lawful entitlement or abandonment of the third party's mark.

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