Judgment

B.P. JEEVAN REDDY, J.-In Civil Appeal No. 2589 of 1985

1. The appellant-firm, Hind Plastics, is engaged in the manufacture of certain plastic goods. For that purpose, it has been importing PVC from time to time, paying the customs duty and additional duty leviable thereon. In the year 1983, it filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, being WP (C) No. 906 of 1983, stating that it had been paying the duty on packages (in which the PVC was imported), being unaware of the Notification No. 184-CUS dated 2-8-1976 providing for their exemption from duty/additional duty. It complained that though the respondents were aware of the notification and ought to have given the benefit there under to the appellant, they did not do so. It prayed for refund of the amount of customs duty and additional duty relatable to packages, besides asking for a direction restraining the customs authorities from levying the duty/additional duty on PVC which may be imported by it thereafter. It appears, a large number of writ petitions raising similar contentions were filed in the Bombay High Court, all of which have been heard and dismissed by a Division Bench. The Division Bench held that the not