Excise duty on manufacture: cooling coils and condensers for captive use still fall within the tariff entry.

Excise duty attaches on manufacture where a tariff entry plainly covers the goods, and a sale requirement cannot be imported from the caption or neighbouring sub-entries unless the entry itself says so. Cooling coils and condensers manufactured in the factory precincts on the owner's materials for use in its own ice plant were held to fall within Item 29A(3) as parts of refrigeration and air-conditioning machinery. The text emphasises that the purpose of manufacture does not control duty liability when the statutory description is otherwise satisfied.

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Issues: Whether cooling coils and condensers manufactured in the petitioners' factory precincts, on the petitioners' materials and for use in their own ice plant, were liable to excise duty under Item 29A(3) of the Tariff Schedule.

Analysis: Item 29A contains three independent sub-entries. Sub-entry (3) covers parts of refrigeration and air-conditioning appliances and machinery, and the entry does not say that such parts are dutiable only if manufactured for sale. The caption of the entry is only a guide to the nature of the goods and cannot be used to import a requirement of sale into clause (3). The event attracting excise duty is manufacture, and the purpose of manufacture does not control liability unless the entry itself so provides. On the facts, the articles manufactured were cooling coils and condensers and they squarely fell within the tariff description. No error apparent on the face of the record was shown to justify interference under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

Conclusion: The cooling coils and condensers were dutiable under Item 29A(3), even though manufactured for the petitioners' own use, and the challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The petition was dismissed because the excise authorities were in treating the manufactured goods as chargeable to duty under the relevant tariff entry.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tariff entry plainly covers a class of goods, liability to excise duty arises on manufacture itself, and a sale requirement cannot be read into the entry merely from its caption or surrounding sub-entries.

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