Provisional excise assessment under Rule 9B governed recovery of differential duty, so no Section 11A notice was needed.

Voluntary submission to provisional assessment under Rule 9B, supported by execution of the prescribed bond and furnishing of security, meant that differential duty was recoverable on finalisation of assessment under that scheme. In such circumstances, the demand was not treated as one of short levy or non-levy requiring a notice under Section 11A of the Central Excise Act. The Court also noted that the earlier writ protection, obtained on an undertaking to comply with the bond and guarantee conditions, did not change the provisional character of the assessments. The duty demand was therefore sustainable without a Section 11A show cause notice.

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Issues: Whether the demand of central excise duty for the relevant period was vitiated for want of a notice under Section 11A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, and whether the assessments were provisional so as to attract the procedure under Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944.

Analysis: The appellant had obtained interim protection in writ proceedings on the basis of an undertaking to execute B-13 bonds and furnish bank guarantees, and the departmental records and RT-12 returns reflected provisional assessment. The dispute before the High Court was to be understood against that background. Once the appellant voluntarily submitted to the provisional assessment mechanism under Rule 9B, the matter was one of finalizing such assessments and recovering the differential duty on finalization, not a case of short levy or non-levy requiring recourse to Section 11A. The earlier writ order did not absolve the appellant from the consequences of the bonds executed or the provisional-assessment procedure to which it had accepted entry. The appellant could not, after securing interim relief on that basis, deny the character of the assessment as provisional or insist on a show cause notice under Section 11A.

Conclusion: No show cause notice under Section 11A was required on the facts, the assessments were correctly treated as provisional, and the duty demand was sustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee voluntarily subjects itself to provisional assessment under Rule 9B by executing the prescribed bond and furnishing security, recovery of the differential duty on final assessment is governed by the provisional-assessment scheme and not by Section 11A.

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