Modvat credit cannot be denied for a technical invoice defect when duty-paid inputs, receipt, and use are undisputed.

A merely technical defect in an invoice does not justify denial of Modvat credit where the document otherwise contains the required particulars and the duty-paid nature, receipt, and use of the inputs are not disputed. An invoice will not be rejected as ineligible solely because the other copies were not scored out, if the omission is only one of form and the substantive conditions for credit are satisfied. On that basis, denial of Modvat credit on this ground was held unjustified and relief was granted to the assessee.

---

---

Issues: Whether Modvat credit could be denied merely because the invoice copies produced by the assessee did not have the words relating to the other copies scored out, when the document otherwise showed the requisite particulars and there was no dispute about duty-paid character, receipt, and use of the inputs.

Analysis: The invoice produced by the assessee contained the necessary copy meant for the buyer and the carbon copy, while the remaining descriptions on the form were not crossed out. That omission was treated as a defect of form only. In the absence of any allegation disputing the duty-paid nature of the inputs, their receipt in the factory, or their utilisation in manufacture, the document could not be rejected as an ineligible one for Modvat purposes.

Conclusion: The denial of Modvat credit on this ground was unjustified. The issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the appeal was allowed with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: A merely technical or rectifiable defect in an invoice does not defeat Modvat credit where the substantive conditions for the credit are otherwise satisfied and the genuineness of the duty-paid inputs is not in dispute.

---