JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J.

In this batch of appeals, the appellant calls in question the assailability of judgment and order dated 6.9.2000 passed by the Customs, Excise and Gold Control (Appellate) Tribunal, New Delhi (for short ‘the tribunal’) in Appeal Nos. E/1073-1090/90-A, E/4285-4289/90-A, E/4293-4294/91-A, E/4296-4322/91-A, whereby the tribunal has not accepted the letters dated 15.12.1970, 01.02.1971 and 02.04.1971 to bring out the arrangement for the return of durable packing, namely, gunny bags, for reuse as packing material for selling the soda ash in bulk. The tribunal has further opined that assessee’s effort to establish that there was an arrangement between the manufacturer and their customers to return the durable packing, namely, gunny bags, and accordingly the claim put forth by them that the value of gunny bags used for packing soda ash manufactured by them should be excluded in finding out the assessable value was unsustainable and hence, unacceptable.

2. The controversy, to be appreciated, requires narration of certain background facts. Dispute with regard to these gunny bags between the assessee and revenue have arisen for the period from 1970 to 1985. As is e