Strict compliance with pre-clearance certification requirement denied exemption where the prescribed certificate was not produced.

A mandatory pre-clearance certification requirement in an exemption notification must be strictly complied with, and failure to produce the prescribed certificate before clearance of goods disentitles the manufacturer to the exemption. The requirement of a certificate from the United Nations or the concerned international organisation before the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner was treated as a condition precedent, so a photocopy or absence of rebuttal evidence could not cure the defect. The challenge to the Tribunal's view therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether exemption under the notifications dated 28 August 1995 and 11 February 1999 could be allowed when the manufacturer failed to produce the prescribed certificate before clearance of the goods.

Analysis: The exemption scheme required production of a certificate from the United Nations or the concerned international organisation before clearance of the goods before the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner. That requirement was treated as a condition precedent for claiming the exemption. The absence of the prescribed certificate could not be cured by reliance on a photocopy or by the absence of rebuttal evidence from the department, because the notification had to be read as a whole and its mandatory condition could not be diluted.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to the exemption and the challenge to the Tribunal's view failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A mandatory pre-clearance certification requirement in an exemption notification must be strictly complied with, and exemption cannot be granted when that condition precedent is not fulfilled.

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