Duty under protest is unavailable under Rule 233B without exhausting normal appeal or revision remedies.

Rule 233B permits duty payment under protest only where the assessee has no appeal or revision remedy against the order or decision creating the duty liability, and the prescribed procedure must be followed. Where the assessee has not challenged the assessment order or classification list through the normal appellate or revisional route, a mere desire to keep the protest alive pending other proceedings does not justify use of the protest mechanism. A perceived conflict in judicial decisions, by itself, does not create a right to invoke Rule 233B outside its terms.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to pay duty under protest under Rule 233B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 in the absence of a challenge to the assessment order or classification list.

Analysis: Rule 233B permits payment under protest where the assessee has no remedy of appeal or revision against the order or decision giving rise to the duty liability, and in such cases the rule requires compliance with the prescribed procedure. On the facts, the assessee had not adopted the normal appellate or revisional course and sought only to keep the protest pending pending the outcome of other proceedings. The existence of a perceived conflict in judicial decisions did not by itself confer a right to invoke the protest procedure outside the rule.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to pay duty under protest under Rule 233B.

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