Natural justice and captive consumption exemption issues justified remand for fresh adjudication and factual verification.

Denial of personal hearing and non-consideration of the assessee's plea on captive consumption exemption and Cenvat credit conditions rendered the adjudication incomplete. The original authority had not examined the manufacturing process, the applicability of Notification No. 67/95-CE, or compliance with Rule 6 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, and the factual basis for non-availment of credit required verification. As these material factual and legal issues were left unresolved, the matter was remanded to the original adjudicating authority for de novo consideration, with liberty to the assessee to raise all contentions, including limitation.

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Issues: Whether the matter required remand for fresh adjudication on account of denial of hearing and non-consideration of the assessee's plea based on the later decisions concerning captive consumption exemption and compliance with the Cenvat credit condition.

Analysis: The appellant had not been heard in person before the adjudicating authority, giving rise to a violation of natural justice. The detailed manufacturing process and the relevance of the later decisions on the availability of the captive consumption exemption under Notification No. 67/95-CE and the condition relating to Rule 6 of the Cenvat Credit Rules were not examined by the original authority. Since verification of the factual foundation, including non-availment of Cenvat credit, was necessary, the matter could not be decided finally at the appellate stage.

Conclusion: The matter was remanded to the original adjudicating authority for de novo consideration, with liberty to the appellant to raise all contentions, including limitation.

Ratio Decidendi: Where material factual pleas and later binding precedent relevant to exemption and credit conditions have not been considered by the original authority, and the assessee was not adequately heard, remand for fresh adjudication is warranted.

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