Strict compliance with customs notification conditions is mandatory before exemption can be sustained; benefit set aside and remanded.

Exemption under customs notifications requires the claimant to prove strict compliance with the prescribed conditions, including the required certificate and undertaking. Where the appellate order grants the benefit without a clear finding that those conditions were fulfilled, the exemption cannot be sustained. The order granting notification benefit was set aside, and the matter was remanded to the Commissioner (Appeals) for fresh consideration of compliance after hearing both sides.

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Issues: Whether the importer had established fulfilment of the conditions attached to Notification No. 82/85-Cus. and Notification No. 148/94-Cus., and whether the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) granting the exemption benefit could be sustained.

Analysis: The benefit of the notifications was claimed by the importer, and the burden lay on it to show compliance with the prescribed conditions, including production of the required certificate and undertaking. The impugned order did not record a finding that the conditions of the notifications had in fact been fulfilled. In the absence of such a finding, the grant of exemption could not be sustained. The proper course was to examine compliance afresh after hearing both sides.

Conclusion: The order granting the notification benefit was set aside and the matter was remanded to the Commissioner (Appeals) for fresh decision on fulfilment of the notification conditions.

Ratio Decidendi: Where exemption under a customs notification is claimed, the claimant must establish strict compliance with the notification conditions, and an order granting the benefit without a finding on such compliance cannot stand.

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