Excise remission for factory fire loss allowed where electric short circuit and destruction were proved by contemporaneous records.

Remission of excise duty was held admissible where footwear destroyed in a factory fire caused by an electric short circuit was lost through an unavoidable accident. Contemporaneous fire and police records, supported by the insurance claim, established the cause of loss and the destruction of goods. The absence of statutory records, after those records themselves had been destroyed in the fire, did not justify rejection of remission. The authority below erred in treating an electric short circuit as outside the scope of unavoidable accident and in disregarding the contemporaneous evidence. Duty demand on the destroyed goods was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether remission of duty was admissible on footwear destroyed in a factory fire caused by electric short circuit, and whether the denial of remission and confirmation of duty could stand despite the loss having occurred inside the factory and the records having been destroyed.

Analysis: Remission under the excise remission scheme is available when goods are lost by natural causes or unavoidable accident. The fire report and police record accepted the cause of fire as electric short circuit, and the loss was also reflected in the insurance claim. The absence of statutory records, after the same had been destroyed in the fire, could not by itself justify rejection of remission where the occurrence of fire and destruction of goods stood established. The authority below wrongly treated electric short circuit as not amounting to an unavoidable accident and substituted its own finding on the cause of fire despite the contemporaneous records. The governing principle, as applied to the facts, is that a fire beyond the assessee's control, caused by short circuit, falls within unavoidable accident for remission purposes.

Conclusion: Remission of duty was admissible, and the demand confirmed on the destroyed goods was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Fire caused by electric short circuit, when established by contemporaneous official records and beyond the assessee's control, constitutes an unavoidable accident entitling remission of excise duty on the destroyed goods.

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