Excise duty recovery after injunction was treated as enforcement of an existing levy, not a fresh Section 11A demand.

Where excise duty liability had already attached and only recovery was postponed by a court injunction, enforcement after vacation of the injunction was treated as recovery of an existing levy, not a fresh case of non-levy, short levy, or short payment. In that situation, a separate notice under Section 11A was not required because the approved classification list and the RT-12 endorsement sufficiently supported recovery of the differential duty. The commentary applies the settled principle that postponed enforcement of an already determined duty liability does not trigger the full Section 11A procedure.

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Issues: Whether an endorsement on the RT-12 returns was sufficient notice for recovering differential excise duty after vacation of the court injunction, and whether the demand could be raised without following Section 11A procedure.

Analysis: The appellants had cleared goods during the pendency of the injunction by paying only part of the duty and the balance became recoverable once the injunction was vacated. The demand did not arise from any dispute about classification or the rate of duty, but from the revival of the full liability already attached to the goods. The Tribunal followed the settled view that where duty liability was already determined and only recovery was postponed by a court order, the case was not one of not levied, short levied, or short paid duty requiring a fresh notice under Section 11A. The assessment under the approved classification list was treated as proper, and the RT-12 endorsement was held sufficient in the circumstances.

Conclusion: Section 11A notice was not required, and the demand for differential duty was sustainable. The appeal failed and the order of the Collector (Appeals) was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where excise duty liability has already attached and recovery is merely postponed by an injunction, its recovery on vacation of the injunction is consequential enforcement of an existing levy and does not attract Section 11A procedure.

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