Judgment

CHANDRACHUD, CJI.:- This is a group of Civil Appeals and Special Leave Petitions arising out of a judgment dated October 19, 1982 delivered by a Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi in a batch of Writ Petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution. Those Writ Petitions having been dismissed by the High Court, the Writ-petitioners have filed these Appeals and Special Leave Petitions.

2. The facts of the various writ petitions naturally vary from case to case but, such variation has no bearing on the points which arise for our decision. We will mention the, facts of Civil Appeals Nos. 27-33 of 1983 as a representative batch of cases. The. two appellants therein are respectively Messers Eastern Engineers, a partnership firm carrying on business at Goregaon, Bombay, and a partner of that firm. For the sake of convenience, we will proceed on the basis that the real appellant is the firm. The appellant carries on the business, inter alia, of importing brass scrap from other countries. Its contention is that the additional duty of customs, which is in the nature of countervailing duty, cannot be levied on brass scrap because, such scrap which consists of damaged brass a