Refund for duty paid under protest survives hyper-technical objections once the classification dispute is decided for the assessee.

Duty paid under protest during a pending classification dispute cannot be denied refund on hyper-technical objections about the form or authority before which the protest was lodged. CESTAT Chennai treated a letter to the jurisdictional Superintendent stating that payment was under protest as sufficient, and held that once the classification issue was finally decided in favour of the assessee, the earlier payments retained their character as protest payments. Refund was therefore maintainable, and procedural objections to the protest were rejected as unjustified and unfair.

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Issues: Whether refund of excise duty paid under protest could be denied on the basis of technical objections relating to the manner in which protest was lodged, after the classification dispute had been finally decided in favour of the assessee.

Analysis: The duty had been paid during the period when the classification dispute was pending, and the assessee had addressed a letter to the jurisdictional Superintendent stating that the duty was being paid under protest. The plea that protest should have been filed before a different authority or in a different form was treated as hyper-technical. Once the classification controversy had attained finality in favour of the assessee, the earlier payments retained their character as payments under protest, and denial of refund on procedural grounds was held to be neither justified nor fair.

Conclusion: The refund claim was maintainable and the Revenue's objection to refund was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty is paid under protest in the course of a classification dispute ultimately decided in favour of the assessee, refund cannot be denied on hyper-technical procedural objections to the protest.

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