SSI exemption depends on grant of certificate, not application date, where no retrospective effect is stated.

Where exemption under Notification No. 175/86 depended on SSI status, the decisive date was the grant of the SSI certificate by the Director of Industries, not the earlier application date. Although the unit had applied before the notification and was already a registered DGTD unit, its small-scale status arose only when the certificate was issued. Because the certificate contained no retrospective stipulation, the exemption could not operate from 1-3-1986 and applied only from 18-10-1986.

---

---

Issues: Whether the benefit of Notification No. 175/86 could be extended from 1-3-1986 on the basis of an SSI certificate applied for before the notification but issued only on 18-10-1986.

Analysis: The appellants were already a registered DGTD unit, but their status as a small scale unit changed only when the SSI certificate was actually granted by the Director of Industries. The Tribunal accepted that the date of application may be relevant in some cases, but held that on these facts the decisive date was the date of grant of the SSI certificate. As the certificate contained no stipulation giving it retrospective effect from 1-3-1986, the exemption could not be treated as operative from that earlier date.

Conclusion: The benefit of Notification No. 175/86 was available only from 18-10-1986 and not from 1-3-1986 to 17-10-1986.

Ratio Decidendi: Where exemption depends on SSI status, and the certificate granting that status is issued without retrospective effect, the exemption becomes available only from the date of grant of the certificate.

---