TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (8) TMI 29
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....ined assorted garments each bearing the brand name "CONYBIO". The appellants, after clearing the goods on payment of applicable duties of Customs, repacked them in old-and-used cartons. In each carton, such number of printed packing material (flattened cartons/boxes) as equal to the number of garments were also packed along with such garments. Each printed packing material (pro cured indigenously) would carry the appellants' name and address, brand name (CONYBIO) and logo, M.R.P of the product to be packed, specifications of the product etc., printed thereon. The garments so packed with equal number of printed packing materials (flattened cartons/boxes) in the old-and-used cartons were sold to buyers, whom the appellants call 'distributors'....
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....ides, we note that the basic issue is whether the activity undertaken by the appellants subsequent to customs-clearance of the bulk imports amounted to "manufacture" in terms of Note 4 to Chapters 61 and 62 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act. This Chapter Note reads as follows: "In relation to a product of this Chapter, affixing a brand name on the product, labelling or relabelling of its containers and repacking from bulk packs to retail packs or the adoption of any other treatment to render the product marketable to the consumer, shall amount to "manufacture" In the impugned orders, ld. Commissioner classified the imported items under Chapter 61 or 62 and applied Chapter Note 4 to the activity undertaken by the appellants....
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....ded by ld. Commissioner that the activity undertaken by the appellants amounted to "manufacture" in terms of Chapter Note 4. The language used in the Chapter Note clearly indicates that repacking from bulk pack to retail packs would not, by itself, amount "manufacture". Besides repacking from bulk pack to retail packs, there must be labelling/re-labelling or the affixing of a brand name also. In the impugned orders, it appears, ld. Commissioner has not found both the ingredients to be cumulatively present in this case. Fie has not spelt out "any other treatment" rendering the goods marketable, either. The challenge offered to the Commissioner's decision by the appellants on the strength of the Supreme Court's judgment in CCE, Mumbai v. John....
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....led out. We have also found a valid point in the contention of the appellants' counsel that the adjudicating authority erred in applying the Chapter Note without examining the question whether there was any labelling or relabelling on the cartons in which the goods were cleared by the appellants. Ld. Counsel has rightly found support from the decision of this Bench in Ruchi Health Foods Ltd. case also. 4. Ld. SDR has referred to two decisions of the Tribunal viz. Mercantile company v. C.C.E. Kolkata, 2001 (134) E.L.T. 277 (Tri.-Kolkata) and C.C.E., Jaipur v. Air Liquide North India (P) Ltd., 2004 (174) E.L.T. 201 (Tri.-Del.). After a perusal of the orders cited by ld. SDR, we have not found that any of these can support the Revenue's case.....