TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1973 (2) TMI 57
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....y carried on with the aid of power. The said provision was given effect to by the addition of entry No. 18A to the first schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, (herein to be called 'the Act'). The petitioners, however, contend that at the time of discussion of the Bill in Parliament the then Finance Minister in his speech on the budget proposal of that year stated that that entry would not apply to yarn in hanks used in waving on handlooms such as Dhoties, sarees and other common varities of cloth. Accordingly, pursuant to the statement made by the Finance Minister the Government issued notification No. 48/61, dated the 1st March, 1961, exempting cotton yarn, if issued out of factory in hanks from the whole of the excise duty leviable thereon. The petitioners state that the above said notification was follwed by a series of notifications. The petitioners contend that the position in regard to levy of excise duty on cotton yarn immediately after the issue of notification No. 169/62, dated 15th September, 1962, Annexure 'A', was that single yarn, whether grey or bleached and grey multiple fold yarn, if cleared out of the factory in hanks of 17 or more counts but less tha....
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....e-said notification, Annexure 'B', directed that the same shall be deemed to have taken effect from the 17th day of August, 1962. The precise contention of the petitioner is that notification Annexure 'B' was by way of amendment of the earlier notification dated the 15th September, 1962, Annexure 'A' and that the department by executive instructions could not enforce the notification, Annexure 'B', with retrospective effect by amending the earlier notification as by giving retrospective effect to the latter notification, the department had claimed duty by the impugned demand notice, Annexure 'C'. Further, the challenge to the demand notice is grounded on the plea that according to the Mercury Dictionary of Textile Terms the length of yarn in hank varies for different Mills and for different purposes. According to the expert opinion yarn in hanks refers to the form in which the yarn is presented for further process and not for a defined length and all reel yarn whether single or double, cross or plain, should be considered as hank yarn. 6.To the above averments of the petitioners the reply of the department filed through Shri J.P. Sinha, Assistant Collector, Central Excise Divisi....
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.... whether notification dated the 16th February, 1963 Annexure(ii) 'B', is by way of clarification only to make explicit the meaning commonly assigned to the term 'hank' in the textile industry or whether it is by way of amendment of the earlier notification, Annexure 'A' and thus cannot be given effect retrospectively. 8.Taking up the first contention, Shri Rameshwar Dial, learned Counsel for the petitioners, submitted that according to notification issued on 1st March, 1961, as stated in para 4 of the writ petition, the view taken was that the term 'hank' did not embrace within its ambit any measure of length. He submitted that the term 'hank' was understood to mean yarn irrespective of the length of the yarn. It was contended that if the contention of the department was to be accepted that the term 'hank' always meant 768 metres (840 yards) where was then the occasion for amending notification, Annexure 'A', by issuing the subsequent notification dated the 16th February, 1963, Annexure 'B'. 9.It is futile for the petitioner to contend that the term 'hank' means yarn on a particular hank or the type of reel irrespective of the yarn as that was not the stand taken by th....
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....f art and was at all times understood to mean a hank which contained the maximum of 768 metres of yarn in a straight reel. 12.The word 'hank' is defined as under in some of the dictionaries and the Manual of Departmental Instructions on Excisable Manufactured Products defined as under :- "A general term for a reeled length of yarn. In calculating the counts of yarn, a definite length is assigned to the hank for each type of yarn. See counts of yarn". "Counts of yarn" in the above-said dictionary is defined at page 204 as follows : - "A number which designates the size of a yarn. Usually a count represents the number of units of length contained in a unit of weight, but in certain classes of yarn the count represents the number of units of weight in a unit of length. The cotton hank - 840 yards; unit of weight 1 lb. The count is the number of hanks of 840 yards which weight 1 lb." In the Mercury "Dictionary of Textile Terms", the word 'count' is defined as under : "The number of yarns is termed the 'count' the cotton system is based on 840 yards to the hank, and the number of hanks that weight, 1, lb…… ecals the count, thus 10's cotton 10 ´ 840 yards per lb. T....