2007 (11) TMI 61

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....based on documents/invoices issued by the said dealers. (b) The original authority disallowed the credit amounting to Rs 93,236/- in respect of invoices issued by some of the dealers on the ground that they have not registered themselves as dealers, with the excise department before 31-12-94 as envisaged in the Board's Circular No 76/76/94-CX dated 8-11-94 (c) The Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the order of the original authority. 4. Learned Advocate for the appellant submits that non-registration is a technical omission and on this ground the credit should not be denied and relies for support on the decision of the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat in the case of Vimal Enterprises v. UOI reported in 2006 (195) E.L.T: 267 (Guj.) and als....

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....ys down that the prescribed document could be accepted by the Assistant Collector only upto 31-12-1994, i.e. in other words any document issued by registered person prior to such registration would be acceptable if such person issuing the document is eligible to issue invoice/document as prescribed by Notification No.15/94 & Notification No. 21/94. To put up it differently, the discretion vested in the authority vide paragraph No. 3 of the Circular is available for exercise upto 31-12-1994. The Circular no stipulates that the dealer has to obtain registration by 31-12-1994. In fact, the sentence which follows states that any document issued by a registered person prior to such registration would be acceptable if he is eligible to issue invo....

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....edundant and such an exercise cannot be ascribed to the Board. 16. It would be travesty of justice if the assessee is denied benefit, to which it is otherwise entitled to for no fault of the assessee. The assessee cannot firstly call upon supplying dealer to apply for registration before the cutoff date, secondly, even if the assessee does so and the supplying dealer makes application for registration before the cut off date it would be beyond the assessee or the dealer to ensure that the registration is granted by the cut-off date. There could b various circumstances on the basis of which the registering authority, may not issue the certificate by so called due date. A simple example would be absence of the registering authority, being ....