Judgment

Thomas, J.- The moot point in this appeal is this: Whether the period of six months envisaged in Section 11A of the Central Excises Act, 1944 (for short ‘the Act’), for issuing show cause notice, stood extended by any further period so as to enable the Revenue to scale over the hurdle of limitation? Respondent (Revenue) advanced two alternative premises in support of the plea that the said period of six months stood extended. First is, there was only a provisional assessment and hence the ‘relevant date’ for issuing the show cause notice could be counted only from final assessment. Second is that an order of stay issued by the High Court of Delhi on 12.8.1981 virtually amounted to a bridle against issuing show cause notice and hence the period stood extended by the entire time when the stay order was in operation.

2. Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT-the acronym hereafter) held that the assessment was not provisional and hence the first premise was not available to the Revenue. But it held by a majority of 2:1 that the interim order of the Delhi High Court dated 12.8.1991 operated as virtually a stay, though not expressly so, against issuance of sh