Judgment

SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, J.

(1) THIS is an appeal under S. 35-L(b) of the central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) against the order dated 15/03/1989 of the Customs, Excise & Gold (Control) Appellate tribunal, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the tribunal).

(2) THE question for consideration in this appeal is, whether the bulb sleeves and tubelight sleeves manufactured by the respondent for the purpose of packing the electric bulbs and electric tubelights are printed boxes and cartons and are subject to excise duty or whether the respon- dent is entitled to exemption under Notification No. 66/82 dated February 28, 1982, as amended by Notification No. 151/83 dated 13/05/1983. The said amended notification reads as follows:

"GSR No.In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1 of Rule 8 of the central Excise Rules, 1944, the central Government hereby exempts articles of paper Or paperboard falling under sub-item (3 of Item No. 17 of the First Schedule to the central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (I of 1944, from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon:

PROVIDED that no such exemption shall apply to printed boxes and printed cartons (including flattened or folded printed boxes and flattened or folded printed cartons) whether in assembled or unassembled condition."

(3) THE respondent was manufacturing printed bulb carton and printed tube carton falling under erstwhile Tariff Item 17(3 of the Central Excise Tariff. The revenue, it is alleged, ascertained that the sleeve rolls had a width of 17.5 cms. consisting of corrugated kraft paper on one side and plain paper on the other side having printed thereon the name, monograms and so on pertaining to the lamps from the corrugated paper manufacturers. The rolls are mounted on a packing machine and are cut to adequate length to circumscribe the lamps and the joint is automatically covered by gum tapes. The sleeves are conveyed automatically to a conveyer on which the lamps are inserted manually. Further the ends of the above sleeve are folded to prevent lamps from falling out. The entire machine is operated by means of electric motor. It is stated that it was further ascertained that for the fluorescent tubes the sleeves already cut to the proper length are supplied to the factory by outside manufacturers. The tube lamp is manually put in and the sleeve edges folded over manually and gum tape is also applied manually. The tube lamp is inserted in the tube and then put in the outside card box packing. It is the case of the revenue that the respondent manufactured printed cartons for bulbs by way of printing on papers (printed and writing) and pasting the printed paper on the corrugated board and thus converting the said corrugated board to printed cartons. According to the revenue, this process of manufacture renders the carton having printing and paper pasting on the surface to make these manufacture in terms of S. 2(f) of the Act and classifiable under Tariff Item 17(3 as aforesaid. According to the revenue, the exemption contained in the Notification No. 66/82 was not applicable as the notification exempted articles of paper and paperboard falling under Tariff Item 17(3 except printed boxes and cartons from the duty. According to the revenue, the respondent manufactured and cleared bulb cartons (printed) and tube cartons (printed) during the period June 198 5/04/1986 of the value of Rs. 10,24,461.25 involving central excise duty to the tune of Rs. 1,59,817.67 without applying for and obtaining a central excise licence for erstwhile Tariff Item 17 and without maintaining any statutory record thus wilfully suppressing and misstating the facts with the intention to evade central excise duty and thereby contravening provisions of the Act and the Rules.

(4) A show-cause notice was issued followed by a corrigendum and demand was made of Rs. 1,59,817.57 under Rule 9(2 of the central Excise Ru