Judgment

GOSWAMI, J.:- This appeal is by special leave from the judgment of the Delhi High Court in a writ application there under Article 226 of the Constitution. The respondent manufactures amongst various other items hot rolled finished steel products in rectangular cross-section of thickness varying between 1.7 mm & 6.55 mm and width varying between 16.2 mm & 311.2 mm and rolled in coils which it supplies to the Indian Tube Company Ltd. at Jamshedpur for making tubes and also to others. This article is subjected to Central Excise Duty under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter called the Act. The dispute between the respondent and the appellants is that while the farmer describes the said manufactured product as strip the appellants classify it as skelp. This diffrerence in classifying the product differently results in fiscal misfortune to the respondent since skelp is subjected to a higher Central Excise Duty than strip.

2. It may be stated that during the period from April 24, 1962 to February 28, 1962, the respondent described its product as skelp and it was subjected then to a lower rate of duty. From February 29, 1964 the respondent claimed that the aforesaid