2003 (4) TMI 448

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.... fabrics/blankets exceeding Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. in value were exempt from payment of Additional Excise Duty leviable under the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 under Notification No. 9/96-C.E. dated 23-7-96 vide Sl. No. 4 of the Table annexed to the notification. The appellants manufactured and cleared Shoddy Woollen fabrics of both the categories, i.e. of value up to Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. and exceeding Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. during the above period and filed RT-12 returns from month to month. On the basis of these returns, the department issued a show cause notice on 17-2-98, wherein it was alleged that 47,305 pieces of Shoddy Woollen blankets exceeding Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. in value had been cleared....

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....ther words, the appellants pleaded that the decision of the original authority was beyond the scope of the show cause notice. This plea was rejected by the Commissioner (Appeals), who upheld the lower authority's decision. Hence this appeal before the Tribunal. 3. Heard both sides. 4. It is, again, argued on behalf of the appellants that the orders of the adjudicating authority and the lower appellate authority are beyond the scope of the show cause notice inasmuch as the goods in respect of which demand of AED has been raised in those orders are different from the goods on which AED was demanded by the department. This plea takes me to a close scrutiny of the records. Copies of the RT-12 returns for the months of September ....

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....ith the entries in the RT-12 returns, I find that these figures represented clearances of Shoddy Woollen blankets exceeding Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. in value, declared at Sl. No. 2 in the returns. Evidently, the department did not purport to demand any AED on these quantities of goods in the show cause notice. Ld. SDR has argued that the intention of the department was to charge Additional Excise Duty on the clearances of Shoddy Woollen Fabrics of value exceeding Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. shown at Sl. No. 2 of the RT-12 returns. Such an intention is not discernible from the text of the show-cause notice, in which a demand has been clearly raised on those quantities of goods of value less than Rs. 100/- per sq. mtr. vide Annexure to the notice. O....