Gate pass credit under excise rules extends to endorsed or certified copies where the basic document requirement is met.

Rule 57G(2) allowed credit on specified documents, and a gate pass was one such eligible document. The text explains that credit could also be taken on an attested or certified copy where the original gate pass was lost, and later withdrawal of that facility did not affect the period in dispute. The attempted distinction between an original gate pass, an endorsed gate pass and an attested copy was treated as artificial because each was regarded as a modified form of the same basic document. On that basis, credit on the attested or certified copy was admissible and the disallowance was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether credit under Rule 57G(2) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 could be taken on an attested or certified copy of a gate pass when the basic document remained a gate pass.

Analysis: Rule 57G(2) prescribed the documents on the strength of which credit could be taken, and a gate pass was an eligible document. The departmental circulars had permitted credit on a certified copy where the original gate pass was lost, and the later withdrawal of that facility did not alter the position for the period in dispute. The distinction sought to be drawn between an original gate pass, an endorsed gate pass, and an attested copy of a gate pass was held to be artificial, since all were treated as modified forms of the same basic document. The reasoning of the lower authority was found unsustainable, and the earlier Tribunal view that an endorsed gate pass was not different from a gate pass was followed.

Conclusion: Credit on the attested or certified copy of the gate pass was admissible, and the disallowance could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the rule recognises a gate pass as an eligible document, its endorsed or attested/certified copy is not a different document for the purpose of availing credit if the basic statutory requirement is otherwise satisfied.

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