TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2004 (3) TMI 84
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....his order was passed in the appeals filed by the Commissioner of Central Excise, Tiruchirappalli against the common order passed by the Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise (Appeals) Tiruchirapalli dated 20-9-1995, by which the said authority had allowed the appeals filed by the assessees against the orders passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, Thanjavur, dated 9-2-1995 and 10-5-1995, whereby, the Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, Thanjavur had held that the appellants' manufacture being Pan masala, was to be classified under Chapter Heading 2106.90 of Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (hereinafter called "the Act") by the department. In short, the Tribunal had set aside the appellate order passed by the Commis....
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.... the Revenue tried to argue that firstly, the Madras High Court judgment on which reliance was placed by the appellate authority, did not cover the question involved as the Note on the basis of which the Madras High Court judgment was given was entirely different from the Note No. 3 in Chapter 21 for the year in use. The relevant year with which we are concerned here and the Tribunal was also concerned was 1994-95, whereas the Madras High Court judgment was given on the basis of the Note pertaining to the year 1985-86 and the language at that time of that Note was also quite different. 6. So far so good. However, the assessees tried to urge before the Tribunal that the supari being betel nut was a nut and therefore, the relevant Entry co....
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.... means any preparation containing betel nuts any one or more of other ingredients such as lime, katha (catechu), cardamom, copra, menthol and tobacco; . . . Even if we read the applicable Note No. 3 under Chapter 21 in any manner, there cannot be any other inference than this. It would only mean that betel nut is the common ingredient and when betel nut is mixed with any one or more of the aforementioned five ingredients, it becomes Pan masala, which Pan masala is dealt with in the main Entry 21.06. The main Entry 21.06 suggests Pan masala to be containing lime, katha (catechu) or tobacco or any one or more of these ingredients. Thereafter comes Entry 2106.11 which speaks only about such produce like Pan masala put up in unit conta....
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.... in a position to agree with the learned Judge as, in my opinion, the last words in the first sentence of Note 3 namely "and tobacco" are not to be read with all the other ingredients. The plain and simple meaning of this clause is that the betel nut alone should be a common factor along with any one or more of the six other factors like lime, katha (catechu), cardamom, copra, menthol and tobacco. It must be noted that there is no comma after the word menthol. Had a comma been there, perhaps the words menthol and tobacco would be required to be read along with the other factors besides the betel nut. This is apart from the fact that the real import of the Entry No. 2106.90 i.e. "Other Pan masala" has not been highlighted before his lordship....