Exemption for research-supplied equipment upheld when competent authority certificate satisfies notification conditions.

Crane, hoist and lifting equipment supplied to specified research institutions qualified for exemption under Notification No. 10/97-CE where the prescribed certificate from the competent authority was produced. The Tribunal noted that the goods were shown to have been supplied for research purposes through the Regional Director of BARC/CAT certificate, and the exemption conditions were therefore satisfied. On the same reasoning applied in the appellant's earlier case for a later period, the benefit could not be denied. The order refusing exemption was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the appellant was entitled to exemption under Notification No. 10/97-CE dated 01.03.1997 for cranes, hoists and lifting equipment supplied to specified research institutions on production of the required certificate from the competent authority.

Analysis: The exemption notification covered scientific and technical instruments, apparatus and equipment supplied to the institutions named in the notification, subject to satisfaction of the prescribed conditions. The appellant had produced the certificate from the Regional Director of BARC/CAT showing that the goods were supplied for research purposes. The same issue had already been decided in the appellant's own case for a later period on the same reasoning, and the Tribunal had held that the benefit could not be denied when the requisite certificates from the competent authority were produced.

Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to the exemption, and the order denying the benefit could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the conditions of an exemption notification are satisfied and the prescribed certificate from the competent authority is produced, the exemption cannot be denied on the same issue for an identical supply of goods to a specified research institution.

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