Extended limitation under excise law requires deliberate suppression or intent to evade duty; disclosure in classification list defeated the demand.

Extended limitation under the proviso to Section 11A applies only where fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, suppression of facts, or contravention of statutory requirements is shown with a positive intent to evade duty. Disclosure of the goods in the classification list, especially where the approved classification list formed part of the record, negatived any reliable basis to infer deliberate evasion on the facts. Applying the same principle to both matters, the demand founded on alleged suppression and misdeclaration was unsustainable, and the duty demands confirmed below were set aside in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the extended period under the proviso to Section 11A(1) could be invoked on the facts of the case, and whether the demand based on alleged suppression and misdeclaration was sustainable.

Analysis: Invocation of the extended limitation period requires fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, suppression of facts, or contravention of statutory requirements with a positive element of intent to evade duty. The appellant had filed a classification list disclosing the nature of the goods, and the approved classification list was part of the record. On the facts found, no reliable basis existed to infer a deliberate intention to evade excise duty. The same principle governed both appeals, including the one decided in light of the amended Section 11A and the earlier binding exposition on the scope of the proviso.

Conclusion: The extended period could not be invoked, and the duty demands sustained on that basis were not maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The demands confirmed by the Tribunal and the lower authorities were set aside, and the appeals succeeded in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: The extended limitation period under Section 11A can be applied only where there is a positive act showing fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, suppression of facts, or contravention with intent to evade duty; mere error or disclosure of the item in the classification list is insufficient.

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