1987 (2) TMI 233

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.... under Item 24 of the First Schedule and is exempted from payment of excise duty under Notification No. 24/65, dated 28-2-1965. On 27-10-1978, the appellants filed a classification list. In the remarks column, they mentioned that articles of silver falling under Tariff Item 24 were exempted from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon by virtue of the Notification aforesaid. The silver articles were products like silver rods, silver anodes, silver sheets, silver plates, silver contacts, silver bi-metal contacts, silver contact material in the form of wire, sheets, strips etc. The Assistant Collector made an assessment that in respect of articles mentioned as a, b, c, d & e in Part-III, duty is leviable at 5% ad valorem. An appeal w....

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..... In Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Volume-III "silver" is defined as white metal element that is sonorous ductile very malleable capable of high degree of polish and chiefly univalent in compounds that has the highest thermal and electric conductivity of any substance that is found native and also compound as in stephanite, argentine, proustite, pyrargyrite, that is obtained as the main product and as a by-product in copper and lead smelting that is one of the noble metal in view of its resistance to oxidation or corrosion except tarnishing by combination with sulphur that usu. alloyed with copper to increase its hardness and that is used for coinage, tableware, jewellery plate and a great variety of articles in photograp....

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....er : V.P. Gulati , Member (T)]. - I agree with the conclusions of brother Shri Santhanam so far as the levy of duty on articles of silver, which are subject matter of this appeal are concerned. I would like to add the following regard to scope of the term 'silver' as used in the Tariff. 9. The term 'silver' as described in the Webster's Dictionary sets out the characteristics of silver metal as an element, its production and uses but does not give an indication as to the scope of the term 'silver' as understood in the trade and those dealing with silver. In the absence of definition of term 'silver' in the Tariff, the scope of it has to be understood with reference to the trade parlance criterion. I agree with brother Shri Santhanam....