Limited remand scope: unsupported duty and interest directions were set aside for failure to record the required finding.

Where a remand is confined to determining furnace capacity and whether duty was paid for the relevant period, the adjudicating authority must stay within that limited remit and record the mandated finding. Here, the authority fixed furnace capacity but failed to determine clearly whether duty had been paid for 1.9.97 to 31.3.98, instead relying on material from a later period outside the remand scope and issuing unsupported directions for duty and interest. Those directions were set aside, and the matter was remanded again only for a finding on duty payment for the relevant period on the basis of the annual capacity fixed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the impugned order complied with the earlier remand directions on determination of furnace capacity and recording a finding on duty payment for the relevant period, and whether the direction to pay duty and interest could stand.

Analysis: The earlier remand required the Commissioner to determine the furnace capacity on the basis of the supplier's invoice and to record a finding whether duty had been paid in accordance with the annual production capacity for the relevant period. The impugned order recorded the furnace capacity, but did not return a clear finding on whether duty had been correctly paid for the period 1.9.97 to 31.3.98. Instead, it relied on material relating to a later period that was outside the scope of remand and then directed payment of duty and interest. Such an order travelled beyond the limited remit of the remand and contained incoherent and unsupported directions.

Conclusion: The direction to pay duty and interest was set aside, and the matter was remanded to the Commissioner only to record a finding on whether duty had been paid for the relevant period on the basis of the annual capacity fixed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a matter is remanded for determination of specific issues, the authority must confine itself to those issues and cannot sustain directions based on extraneous material or without recording the mandated finding.

---