Composite solar lighting system exemption upheld; package could not be split to deny relief for the second lamp.

Exemption under Notification No. 6/2002-CE, as amended, was held admissible for a solar lantern package cleared as a composite solar lighting system with two lamps and one solar photovoltaic module. The decisive consideration was the goods as actually cleared and marketed, which functioned as an integrated system capable of charging both lamps simultaneously. Artificially vivisecting the package to treat the second lamp as an ordinary lamp was rejected, because the technical opinion relied on by revenue did not displace the composite character of the package. The denial of exemption to the second lamp was therefore unsustainable, and exemption applied to the entire package.

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Issues: Whether exemption under Notification No. 6/2002-CE as amended was admissible to the solar lantern package cleared with two lamps and one solar photovoltaic module, or whether the package could be vivisected to deny exemption to the second lamp.

Analysis: The package was cleared and marketed as a composite solar lighting system with a solar photovoltaic module capable of charging both lamps simultaneously. The decisive test was the form in which the goods were cleared, not an artificial splitting of the package into its individual components. The technical opinion relied on by the revenue did not justify treating one lamp in the package as an ordinary lamp when the package as sold functioned as a solar lantern system. On the facts found, the extra lamp formed part of the cleared package and the attempt to isolate it for denial of exemption had no legal basis.

Conclusion: The exemption was admissible to the entire package, and the denial of exemption to the second lamp was unsustainable.

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