Refund of duty collected without legal authority limited to the recognised three-year period for excess excise recovery.

Synthetic waste was treated as assessable under item 68 of the Central Excise Tariff, not item 18 IV, so additional duty collected on that mistaken basis lacked legal authority. The Court applied the principle that duty recovered without being leviable in law is refundable, but limited relief to excess duty paid within the three years preceding the petition. Refund of the admissible differential amount was therefore directed, with payment to be made within the period stated by the Court.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners were entitled to refund of additional duty collected on synthetic waste as assessed under item 18 IV of the Central Excise Tariff, and whether refund could be restricted to payments made within three years prior to the filing of the petition.

Analysis: The Court noted that synthetic waste had already been held not to fall under item 18 IV but to be assessable under item 68 of the Central Excise Tariff. It further followed the view that where duty is recovered which is not leviable in law, the collection is without authority of law. On that basis, refund was directed in respect of excess duty paid within the three-year period preceding the petition.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to refund of the differential additional duty collected within three years prior to the petition, and the respondents were directed to make payment within eight weeks.

Final Conclusion: The demand retained no legal basis to the extent of duty wrongly collected, and relief was granted by directing refund of the admissible differential amount.

Ratio Decidendi: Duty collected without a legal basis is recoverable by refund, subject to the applicable temporal limit recognised by the Court.

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