TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1997 (3) TMI 101
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....of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (5 of 1986), from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon which is specified in the said Schedule.'' 2It may be mentioned that Cardio Vascular Sutures have been shown at Serial No. 4 in the Schedule appended to the said Notification. 3By another Notification No. 69/93-C.E., dated. 28th February, 1993 certain sight saving equipments specified in the table thereto [and] falling within Chapter 90 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 case to be exempted from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon. The exact text of that Notification may also be produced for ready reference. It reads as under : ``Exemption to specified sight saving equipments. - In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 5A of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts goods of the description specified in the Table hereto annexed and falling within Chapter 90 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 ( 5 of 1986), from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon which i....
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.... to be omitted. However, sub-section (4) of Section 5A states that every Notification issued under sub-rule (1) and every order made under sub-rule (2) of Rule 8 of the Rules and in force immediately before the commencement of the Amendment Act, 1988 shall be deemed to have been issued or made under the provisions of this Section and shall continue to have the same force and effect after such commencement, until it is amended, verified, rescinded or superseded under the provisions of the said Section. Therefore, the Notification issued under Rule 8(1) and in force on 1st July, 1988 has to be deemed to have been issued under the provisions of Section 5A of the Act. 7 It may now be proper to refer to Chapter 30 of. the C.E. Tariff entitled `Pharmaceutical Products'. Note 3 says that Heading No. 30.05 applies to the items enumerated in clauses `a' to `h' thereof which are to be classified in that heading and in no other heading of this Schedule - Item `a' refers to sterile surgical catgut, similar sterile suture materials and sterile tissue adhesives for surgical wound closure and Item `h' refers to chemical contraceptive preparations based on hormones or spermicides. Now if we....
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....nd another Notification No. 61/95-C.E., dated 16-3-1995 was issued under Section 5A of the Act, exempting goods of the description specified in the table annexed thereto and falling within the Schedule to the Tariff Act from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon. Serial No. 24 in the table mentions Atraumatic Needles and Sutures which is one of the items in question produced by the appellants. The submission of the learned Counsel for the appellants is that these two Notifications are clarificatory in nature, in that, instead of the Central Board issuing a clarification, these two Notifications were issued which did away with the words `falling within Chapter 90 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985' to clarify the position. In this connection, our attention was also drawn to a Circular issued by the Central Board dated 13th February, 1996 which in terms makes a mention about the representations having been received by the Board complaining that the benefit under certain exemption Notifications was being denied on the ground that the goods, while being covered by the description specified under the Notification, do not fall in the Chapters/heading number....
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....htly held that the views of the experts could not be relied upon and so holding it concluded that the goods did not come within the purview of Heading 90 and, therefore, the demand of the appellants for exemption was baseless. It observed that since the goods in question are a combination of both items, the ratio of this Court in the decision cited above had no application. As far as the Circular is concerned, it was held that it would not be applicable and accordingly dismissed the appeals. The appellants have approached this Court by way of these appeals. 9.In the context of what we have stated hereinbefore the short question is whether the goods in question fall within Entry 3005.90 or they fall within the scope of Entry 90.18 within the meaning of the respective terms ``others'' and instruments and appliances used in surgical sciences. As stated earlier the submission of Mr. K. Parasaran, the learned senior counsel for the appellants, was that since each item in question was an integrated product comprising the needled suturing material, it fell within the meaning of the term appliances used in surgical operations and attracted Item 90.18 of Chapter 90 whereas Mr. Subba Rao, t....