Customs classification turns on technical test reports, with the Revenue bearing the burden to prove a contrary tariff entry.

Customs classification disputes are resolved on the strength of technical evidence: laboratory and expert test reports showing the goods as dolomite blocks under Heading 25181000 outweighed reliance on emails, website material and nomenclature. The analysis states that the burden to prove the Revenue's proposed marble classification remained on the department and was not discharged. It also notes that the absence of one test report with the importer did not shift that burden, especially where other consignments of the same description were supported by expert evidence. Once the classification basis failed, confiscation, redemption fine, interest and penalties were treated as consequential and could not survive.

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Issues: Whether the imported goods were correctly classifiable as rough dolomite blocks under Customs Tariff Heading 25181000 as declared by the assessee, or as marble blocks under Customs Tariff Heading 25151210 as alleged by the Revenue; and whether the consequential demand, confiscation, redemption fine, interest, and penalties could survive.

Analysis: The classification dispute was resolved primarily on the basis of laboratory and expert test reports. For eight bills of entry, the record contained test reports from government laboratories, including the Customs and Central Excise Laboratory and the Geological Survey of India, which supported the view that the goods were dolomite blocks and not marble. The Revenue's reliance on email correspondence, supplier website material, and nomenclature was found insufficient to displace the technical evidence. The burden to prove the Revenue's claimed classification remained on the department, and it was not discharged. As to the remaining bill of entry for which the assessee could not produce the test report, the absence of the report with the assessee did not shift the burden from the department, particularly when the other consignments of the same description had been accepted as dolomite blocks on expert evidence. Once the classification demand failed, the confiscation, redemption fine, interest, and penalties, being consequential, could not survive.

Conclusion: The goods were held to be correctly classifiable as dolomite blocks under Customs Tariff Heading 25181000. The Revenue's demand was not sustainable, while the assessee's challenge to the confirmed demand succeeded, and the consequential confiscation and penalty consequences also fell.

Final Conclusion: The consolidated result is that the assessee succeeded on the principal classification dispute, the Revenue's challenge to the dropped demand failed, and all connected consequences based on the rejected classification could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: In a customs classification dispute, the burden to establish the alleged taxable classification lies on the Revenue, and technical expert test reports prevail over unsupported inferences from nomenclature, emails, or website material; consequential demands and penalties cannot survive once the classification basis fails.

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