1983 (2) TMI 282

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....he appellants. 2.  Shri Ramasubramaniam, on behalf of the appellants, referred to the wording of Item 29(i) CET and stated that only those I.C. engines fell under this item which were designed for use as a prime-mover for transport vehicles, that transport vehicles were those which plied on public roads and for fairly long distances, that a vehicle for mechanised transport must be a motor vehicle first, that for this reason it was relevant to refer to the definitions of 'Public Service Vehicle' and 'Goods Vehicle' in the Motor Vehicles Act, that in this sense forklift trucks were not transport vehicles but work trucks used for a short distance transport within the factory area and that the other features which distinguished them fro....

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....t in the wider sense even an aircraft was a transport vehicle. Regarding the second argument of the appellants, he stated that the doctrine of Res Adjudicata had to be applied to taxation matters with extreme care, the Central Excise Law, as it then stood, gave finality only to Orders-in-Appeal and that too subject to the power of revision by the Central Government, that no finality could be claimed for assessment orders as otherwise the provisions of rule 10 relating to short-levy would become redundant, that the power under rule 10 was also, in a sense, a review power inasmuch as it enabled the proper officer to issue a show cause notice in case he felt that duty had been short-levied due to error, that mistake of interpretation of law wa....

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....ther. In the absence of any stipulation in the Tariff as to the distance to be covered, it is not correct to say that a short distance transport vehicle is not a transport vehicle. In the same way, it is also not correct to say that a transport vehicle must run on public roads only. Vehicles which run on kucha tracks or in rough terrains are also transport vehicles. When we turn to the language of Item 34B of the Tariff, we find that forklift trucks come in the category of work trucks used for short distance transport. Thus they are basically a transport vehicle. No doubt that in addition they perform the functions of lifting and stacking also. But these are their secondary functions, their primary function being one of carriage of material....