Order

The challenge in this writ petition is to the provisions of Section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.

2. The petitioners are engaged in the business of import of automobile spare parts. They are liable to pay customs duty as levied under Section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962 which provides that the customs duty will be levied at such rates as may be specified under the Cus­toms Tariff Act, 1975.

3. The Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) provides for levy of additional duty under Section 3 which Section reads as follows :

“3. Levy of additional duty equal to excise duty.-(1) Any article which is imported into India shall, in addition, be liable to a duty (hereafter to this section referred to as the additional duty) equal to the excise duty for the time being leviable on a like article if produced or manufactured in India and if such excise duty on a like article is leviable at any percentage of its value, the additional duty to which the imported article shall be so liable shall be calcu­lated at that percentage of the value of the imported article.

Explanation.-In this section, the expression “the excise duty for the time being leviable on