Mutually alternative exemption notifications may be chosen later, with prior benefit not barring a switch, subject to adjustment and limitation.

Where two exemption notifications are mutually alternative, a manufacturer may elect the more beneficial concession even after initially availing the other, because prior temporary use of one notification does not by itself create a permanent bar to the other. The prohibition is read only against simultaneous or duplicated benefit, not against a later switch where the scheme permits one exemption at a time. No financial-year-wise restriction was found in the language of the notifications. The later claim remains subject to adjustment of the benefit already enjoyed under the earlier notification and must satisfy limitation and the other notification conditions.

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Issues: Whether a manufacturer who had initially availed exemption under one notification could later claim the benefit of an alternative, more beneficial exemption notification when both notifications permitted availment of only one exemption.

Analysis: The exemption scheme showed that the manufacturer was entitled to choose either of the two notifications depending on which was more beneficial. The bar in the later notification was read as preventing simultaneous availment of both concessions, not as creating an irrebuttable estoppel against a later claim under the other notification merely because the earlier notification had been availed of for some period. No financial-year-wise restriction could be read into the language of the notifications. The claim was, however, required to be confined to the proper amount after giving credit for the benefit already enjoyed under the earlier notification, and it had to be within limitation.

Conclusion: The later exemption notification was available to the assessee, subject to adjustment of the earlier benefit and compliance with limitation; the assessee's appeals were allowed and the Revenue's appeal failed.

Final Conclusion: The decision recognises the manufacturer's right to opt for one of two mutually alternative exemption notifications and rejects the Revenue's attempt to treat prior temporary availment of one exemption as a permanent bar to the other.

Ratio Decidendi: Where two exemption notifications are mutually alternative and the statute or notification does not impose a temporal bar, prior availment of one concession does not by itself preclude a later claim under the other, provided only one concession is ultimately availed and the claim otherwise satisfies the notification conditions and limitation.

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