2009 (1) TMI 288

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....P. No. 20382/02, which was allowed by the learned single Judge, as per the impugned judgment, have come up in appeal. The writ petitioner, manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, had availed of a facility of monthly payment of excise duty, under Rule 173(GG) of the Central Excise Rules as it stood prior to 1-4-2000. It had claimed the benefit of concessional rate of excise duty in terms of notifi....

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....n terms of Rule 173(GG)(3) of the Rules and penalty should not be imposed at the rate of Rs. 500/- per day from the date on which the amount was payable till the actual date of payment. Ext. P4 reply was submitted by the petitioner pointing at the total absence of any mens rea or intention to evade payment of duty. It was further pointed out that what had happened was a clerical mistake in computi....

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....ed for imposition of penalty, even in the absence of a wilful intention to evade payment of duty. This, the learned single Judge found, was not resultant upon a correct application of the legal principles laid down by the Supreme Court in several decisions, dealing with the imposition of penalty under fiscal statutes. The learned single Judge found that it cannot be said, as a matter of law, that ....

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....e present case, the deficit duty had been paid along with interest even before the issuance of the show cause notice. The appellate authority had also found absence of any intention to evade payment of duty. In these circumstances, we are in complete agreement with the reasoning and findings of the learned single Judge. The orders of penalty were clearly not sustainable and rightly interfered with....