Classification guidance must come from the Board alone; a Collector's trade notice cannot bind excise assessments.

Uniformity in classification of excisable goods can be directed only by the Board under its statutory power, and that power is exclusive unless validly delegated. A Collector's trade notice cannot assume that function, because classification remains part of the quasi-judicial assessment process and cannot be controlled by a notice not traceable to a lawful Board instruction. Rule 233 on supplemental matters cannot be expanded to authorise substantive classification guidance. The practical effect is that a Collector-issued trade notice has no legal force to bind the Department or assessing officers in classification matters, and any classification order resting on such notice lacks support.

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Issues: Whether the trade notice issued by the Collector could validly guide or bind Assessing Officers in the classification of excisable goods and, on that basis, sustain the lower appellate authority's classification.

Analysis: Section 37B vests the power to issue orders, instructions and directions for bringing about uniformity in classification of excisable goods in the Board. That power is exclusive and is not shown to have been delegable to a Collector or Commissioner. Rule 233, dealing with supplemental matters under the Central Excise Rules, 1944, cannot be stretched to cover the substantive function of classification, which forms part of the quasi-judicial assessment process. A trade notice authored by a Collector, not traceable to a valid Board instruction, cannot override or control statutory classification and cannot bind the Department.

Conclusion: The trade notice was held to be without legal force and incapable of binding the Department; the lower appellate order based on it was set aside.

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