Excisability of cigarette packet components required fresh evidence after inadequate findings on manufacture and marketability.

Slides and slits in cigarette packets were examined for excisability under the tariff, but the earlier appellate orders lacked a specific finding on manufacture and rested on an inadequate appraisal of marketability. The excisability objection, though not raised in the reply to the show cause notice, had been pressed before the appellate authority and the Tribunal without objection to maintainability. In these circumstances, the proper course was to permit both sides to adduce evidence and decide the matter afresh. The appeals were allowed, the impugned orders were set aside, and the matters were remanded for fresh disposal.

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Issues: Whether parts of cigarette packets, namely slides and slits, were excisable goods, and whether the appellate orders deserved to be set aside and the matter remanded for fresh decision in view of the absence of specific findings on manufacture and marketability.

Analysis: The controversy turned on whether the goods answered the definition of excisable goods under the tariff. The earlier appellate orders did not record a specific finding on the process of manufacture, and the finding on marketability was not based on a proper evidentiary appraisal. Although the excisability plea had not been taken in the reply to the show cause notice, it had been raised before the appellate authority and the Tribunal without objection as to maintainability. In these circumstances, the proper course was to afford both sides an opportunity to lead evidence and to have the matter decided afresh by the appellate authority.

Conclusion: The appeals were allowed, the impugned orders were set aside, and the matters were remanded for fresh disposal.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a material excisability issue has not been specifically adjudicated and the existing findings are not supported by a proper evidentiary determination, the matter may be remanded for fresh consideration after allowing the parties to adduce evidence.

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