judgment

Tarun Chatterjee, J. —

1.The pivotal question that needs to be adjudicated upon in this appeal is whether the appellant company is entitled to exemption from payment of central excise duty under Notification No. 175/1986-CE dated 1st of March, 1986 (in short “the notification”).

2.Before deciding this question, it would indeed be worthwhile to briefly highlight the facts of the present appeal.

3.The appellant i.e. Nirlex Spares Pvt. Ltd. was and/or is engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of Riderless Steel Healds and Flat Steel Healds. It is important to note that these goods were manufactured and sold by the company under its own brand names/trade names viz. Intatex and Intaco which were affixed/ printed on its corrugated boxes. However, since it is a company registered as a Small Scale Industrial Unit, it was availing the benefit of exemption from payment of central excise duty under the notification, which grants such exemption to Small Scale Industrial Units.

4.The appellant, however, from 1st of April, 1990 started printing a hexagonal artistic design (alleged monogram) along with its brand names/trade names Intatex and Intaco on its corrugated boxes. On 30th