2009 (4) TMI 614

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....llant have sugar mill at Amroha. On 1-6-06, General Manager of the Appellant's company addressed a letter to the Supdt. of Central Excise, Range - Amroha informing him that their head office team visited the Amroha factory on 30th and 31st May' 06 and conducted physical stock verification of sugar godown, in the course of which shortage of 1826 qtls. was found and that they are prepared to deposit Central Excise Duty on this quantity and debit it in the R.G.I Register. The Central Excise Duty on 1826 qtls. was paid on 2-6-06. On receipt of the communication from the Appellant, the Central Excise Range Officer also deputed a Central Excise team for stock verification, in course of which, another shortage of 87 qtls. was found. On this quanti....

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....nt being a Govt. of U.P. Undertaking, there cannot be intention on their part to evade the duty when the entire duty on the shortage had been paid immediately after it was detected and duty payment was much before the issue of SCN and that when bulk of the shortage of 1826 qtls. had been detected by the Appellant themselves, no mala fide can be attributed to them. He also cited the Tribunal's judgment in the case of Best Undertaking v. CCE, Mumbai reported in 2007 (213) E.L.T. 202 wherein it was held that the Appellant being a local authority constituted under Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1988 and as such a "State" under Article 12 of Constitution of India, there cannot be any motive on their part to evade the duty and therefore, there....