Judgment

Mrs. Sujata V. Manohar, J.-Leave granted.

2. This appeal is against the judgment and order dated 14th of Octo­ber, 1996 of the High Court at Bombay in Civil Writ Petition No. 1938 of 1982.

3. The appellant is a manufacturer of Cigarettes. Cigarettes so manu­factured are liable to excise duty. It is the case of the appellant that till August 1972 he filed his price list on the basis of the price at which his goods were sold by the sole distributor to whole­sellers, the appellant being under an erroneous impression that this was the price to be considered for the value of the goods for the purposes of excise duty. In August 1972, the appellant claimed that he discovered his mistake in not filing a price list on the basis of the price charged by the appellant to his sole distributor. Thereupon the appellant filed fresh price list from 1st of September, 1972 declaring the value of its products as the price at which the product was sold by the appellant to the distributors. This price list was approved.

4. In September 1973, the appellant filed a price list in which he sought reduction of post-manufacturing expenses from the value of his product. This request was rejected by the As