Immovable plant and machinery assembled at site is not excisable manufacture when no movable marketable product comes into existence.

A waste water treatment plant assembled from duty-paid components at site and embedded in civil work was treated as immovable property, not excisable goods. Section 2(f) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 covers manufacture only where a movable excisable product comes into existence; mere assembly of parts at site is insufficient. On the admitted facts, the plant emerged only after erection and installation, so it was not a commercial movable product liable to excise duty. The Revenue's reliance on authority concerning a marketable weigh-bridge was distinguished because that case involved a movable product, unlike the present immovable plant, and the show-cause notice was therefore liable to be quashed.

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Issues: Whether a waste water treatment plant erected at site by assembling components and embedding them in civil work becomes an immovable property not liable to excise duty, and whether the impugned show-cause notice could be quashed on that basis.

Analysis: Section 2(f) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 defines manufacture to cover processes incidental or ancillary to completion of manufactured goods, but mere bringing together of duty-paid parts at site does not by itself amount to manufacture unless a movable excisable product comes into existence. On the admitted facts, the plant did not come into existence as a commercial movable product until all components were assembled and embedded in the civil work, after which it became an immovable property. A plant that comes into existence only upon such erection and installation is not excisable. The decision relied upon by the Revenue was distinguished because it concerned a marketable weigh-bridge and not an immovable plant.

Conclusion: The plant was not excisable goods, and excise duty could not be levied on it; the show-cause notice was liable to be quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: A structure erected only upon assembly of components into civil work, so that it emerges as an immovable property and not as a movable marketable product, does not amount to excisable manufacture under Section 2(f).

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