JUDGMENT

D.K. Jain, J. —

1. This Civil Appeal, under Section 130-E(b) of the Customs Act, 1962 (for short “the Act”), is directed against order dated 4th April, 2003 passed by the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, as it then existed, (for short “the Tribunal”), in Appeal No. C/298/02- Mum. By the impugned order, the Tribunal has allowed the appeal preferred by the Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai, holding that the appellant is not entitled to claim the benefit of Exemption Notification No. 17/2001/Cus (General Exemption No. 121), issued by the Min- istry of Finance, Government of India on 1st March, 2001.

2. Briefly stated, the facts, material for adjudication of the issue arising in this appeal, are as follows:

The appellant namely, M/s Gammon India Ltd. (for short “Gam-mon”) and one M/s Atlanta Infrastructure Ltd., Mumbai, (for short “At-lanta”) both incorporated as Public Limited Companies, entered into a joint venture agreement on 18th September, 2000. The joint venture was named and styled as “Gammon Atlanta JV”. The agreement was entered into for the purpose of submitting a bid to the National Highways Author-ity of India (for short “NHAI”) for award of a c