https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=798710 Central excise duty and penalty for alleged clandestine clearances cannot rest on unreliable seized records. The panchnama, ledger and other quantification documents lacked proved recovery and contents, were not supplied, and were undermined by contradictory evidence on the panchnama's execution. The proprietor's statement was not inculpatory because the entries were described as rough, of unknown authorship, and unavailable in copy. Excluding turnover derived from those materials, clearances for both relevant years remained within the small scale industry exemption limit. Consequently, clandestine clearances were not established, and no duty or penalty was payable. en-us Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0530 Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:13:49 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=798710 Central excise duty and penalty for alleged clandestine clearances cannot rest on unreliable seized records. The panchnama, ledger and other quantification documents lacked proved recovery and contents, were not supplied, and were undermined by contradictory evidence on the panchnama's execution. The proprietor's statement was not inculpatory because the entries were described as rough, of unknown authorship, and unavailable in copy. Excluding turnover derived from those materials, clearances for both relevant years remained within the small scale industry exemption limit. Consequently, clandestine clearances were not established, and no duty or penalty was payable. Case-Laws Central Excise Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=798710