Pipeline oxygen is not compressed gas for excise duty unless put into containers for storage, handling, or transport.

Oxygen gas conveyed from the appellants' plant through a pipeline to another unit was not treated as "compressed gas" for Central Excise purposes under Item 14. The controlling principle applied was that compressed gas is gas compressed into a container at a specified pressure for storage, handling, and transport, not gas moving through a pipeline in plant conditions only slightly above atmospheric pressure. Relying on earlier Tribunal decisions and the Supreme Court view referred to therein, the gas was held not liable to duty in the appellants' hands at the stage it left their premises. The demand was therefore unsustainable and the duty-confirming order was set aside.

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Issues: Whether oxygen gas conveyed through a pipeline from the appellants' plant to another unit, and thereafter compressed into cylinders and containers by that unit, was liable to Central Excise duty in the hands of the appellants as compressed gas under Item 14 of the Central Excise Tariff.

Analysis: The controlling principle applied was that compressed gas means gas compressed into a container at a specified pressure for storage, handling, and transport, and not gas moving through a pipeline in a plant under pressure only slightly above atmospheric pressure. Following the earlier Tribunal decisions and the Supreme Court's view relied upon therein, the gas produced by the appellants and supplied through pipeline did not answer that description at the stage when it left the appellants' premises. The later objections on jurisdiction and limitation were not examined, the merits having been decided for the appellants.

Conclusion: The oxygen gas was not liable to Central Excise duty in the hands of the appellants.

Final Conclusion: The demand was unsustainable and the order confirming duty liability was set aside, with restoration of the Assistant Collector's orders dropping the demands.

Ratio Decidendi: Gas in pipeline form is not "compressed gas" for excise purposes unless it is compressed into a container for storage, handling, or transport.

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