Show Cause Notice was limited to alleged absence of Mean...

Show Cause Notice was limited to alleged absence of Mean Reflectance (MR) testing from an authorised laboratory and asserted unreliability of load port CSN values; the impugned adjudication impermissibly relied on later laboratory reports not cited in the notice, creating a jurisdictional defect and rendering that reliance unsustainable. On merits, contemporaneous import evidence (load port certificate and Customs chemical report) met the Notification No. 21/2002 exemption thresholds for MR and CSN; belated testing more than two years after sampling was not shown to be scientifically reliable or preserved, so it could not displace the contemporaneous evidence and entitlement to exemption was established.

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