Post-manufacture sorting and grading with electric light was not manufacture with aid of power, preserving excise exemption.

Sorting and grading fabricated mica on a lighted table did not amount to manufacture with the aid of power, because the goods were already fully manufactured before that post-manufacture activity. Electric lighting used only to check, sort and grade export-quality mica did not convert the process into manufacture under excise law, and the reference to the Factories Act definition of power was not decisive. The exemption under Notification No. 179/77-C.E. therefore remained available, and the duty demand for the disputed period could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether sorting and grading fabricated mica on a lighted table fitted with tube light amounted to manufacture with the aid of power so as to deny the exemption under Notification No. 179/77-C.E.

Analysis: The fabricated mica was already fully manufactured before it was subjected to sorting and grading. The use of the lighted table was confined to checking, sorting and grading for export quality, and was not part of the manufacturing process. The fact that electric lighting was used for this post-manufacture activity did not make the goods manufactured with the aid of power. The reference to the definition of power in the Factories Act did not alter the position, because the decisive question was whether the activity itself formed part of manufacture under the excise law.

Conclusion: The use of the lighted table for sorting and grading did not amount to manufacture with the aid of power, and the exemption remained available to the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The demand for duty for the disputed period could not be sustained and the appeal succeeded.

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