1997 (6) TMI 225

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....d by SAIL. The contention of the department before the Collector (Appeals) was that the Board had prescribed as valid document for taking credit, the delivery challan cum invoice. Hence the document on which credit would be taken is the original delivery challan cum invoice, (challan for short) and not a copy thereof. The assessee represented before the Collector that it was the practice of SAIL to issue to the customer, the buyer of the goods, one copy of the challan that was made; that this was the document on which credit was being taken, and had been taken all over the country. In support of its contention it produced a letter dated 7-11-1987. The Collector has disposed of the appeal by passing the following order. "I find ... that c....

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.... Subject to positive verification of the factual position as claimed by the Respondents, the depttl. appeal would stand rejected. If the position is otherwise and more than one copy of the challan/invoices is supplied to the customers by SAIL, the impugned order shall stand confirmed. The departmental appeal is accordingly disposed of." 3. Thus the Collector takes away in this portion of the order extracted what he has given in the earlier portion of the order. As I understand his order he first says that he is satisfied that SAIL issues only a copy to its customers, and that it is this document which was in the mind of the Board which it prescribed the delivery challan cum invoice of SAIL as a valid duty paying document. Imme....

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....as said that the SAILs letter represented the correct position no further verification was called for or required. The order, in short, does not decide anything and for this reason alone this has to be set aside. 5. The question posed by the department still remains. The carbon copy of the invoice could not be equated with the delivery challan cum invoice as specified in the Trade Notice. Prima facie I would accept this contention. When the circular of the Board referred to the delivery challan cum invoice it would normally refer to the original and not the copy. If it was intended that the copy would be the relevant document, it would have said so. But we are to view the matter in the context of the regulations relating to Modvat c....