https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=260038 A criminal complaint for alleged excise duty evasion could not survive once the underlying classification dispute had been finally decided against the Revenue and the goods were held not exigible to central excise duty. With the duty-liability foundation removed, the prosecution on the same cause of action amounted to abuse of process and was quashed. Non-registration under the excise rules also did not independently sustain criminal liability, because the complaint did not establish a separate statutory offence or a pleaded basis showing that registration was required despite non-exigibility. In the absence of an independent legal foundation, continuation of the complaint and consequential proceedings was impermissible. en-us Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 15:01:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=260038 A criminal complaint for alleged excise duty evasion could not survive once the underlying classification dispute had been finally decided against the Revenue and the goods were held not exigible to central excise duty. With the duty-liability foundation removed, the prosecution on the same cause of action amounted to abuse of process and was quashed. Non-registration under the excise rules also did not independently sustain criminal liability, because the complaint did not establish a separate statutory offence or a pleaded basis showing that registration was required despite non-exigibility. In the absence of an independent legal foundation, continuation of the complaint and consequential proceedings was impermissible. Case-Laws Central Excise Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=260038