Unclear duty and confiscation order set aside where liable unit was not identified, requiring fresh speaking adjudication.

An order confirming duty, penalty and confiscation could not be sustained where it clubbed clearances of four units but failed to identify which unit or units were liable to pay the amounts or how the redemption fine was to be apportioned. Because the operative part was unclear and incapable of execution, the fiscal and confiscatory directions were treated as unworkable. The order was set aside and the matter remanded for de novo adjudication with directions to pass a clear speaking order specifying the liable unit or units after hearing the parties.

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Issues: Whether the order confirming duty, penalty and confiscation was unsustainable for failure to specify the unit or units liable to pay the amounts and the redemption fine, and whether the matter required remand for fresh consideration.

Analysis: The order-in-original proceeded on clubbing of the clearances of four units and confirmed duty and penalty while also ordering confiscation of land, building, plant and machinery of two units with a composite redemption fine. The liability portion did not specify which unit was to pay the duty and penalty or whether the amounts were to be borne pro rata, and the redemption fine was likewise not apportioned or identified with clarity. An order imposing fiscal liability and confiscatory consequences must be clear and workable, and where the operative part is incapable of execution for want of specificity, it cannot stand. The appropriate course was to set aside the order and require a fresh speaking order after hearing the appellants.

Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the matter was remanded for de novo adjudication with directions to specify the liable unit or units and pass a speaking order.

Final Conclusion: The appellants obtained relief against the existing adjudication, but the controversy was sent back for fresh decision on merits and on the operative liabilities.

Ratio Decidendi: A duty, penalty or confiscation order that fails to identify the person or unit liable and is therefore incapable of being operated cannot be sustained and must be remanded for a clear speaking determination.

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