J. B. MEHTA, S. H. SHETH, J.

( 1 ) ESSO Standard Eastern Corporation a Company incorporated in U. S. A. has its main office at Bombay and has a branch at Ahmedabad. IL is hereinafter referred to for the sake of brevity as Esso. It has been dealing in petrolium products in India and has Oil Terminals at different ports in India where it has storage facilities At Okha it has storage tanks for storing petroleum products such as petrol diesel oil and furnace oil. Okha had prior to 1st January 1970 its Gram Panchayat which since 1st January 1970 has been converted into a Nagar Panchayat constituted under the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act for the sake of brevity) The Okha Gram Panchayat will be hereinafter referred to as the Panchayat for the sake of brevity. It had been importing petroleum products at Okha from Bombay and storing them in its tanks there It had a bonded ware house at Bombay and another at Okha maintained under the Central Excises and Salt Act 1944 Removal of these goods from one bonded warehouse to another entailed no payment of excise duty It became payable only when goods were removed from a bonded ware house for the purpose of sale or

Click Here to Read the rest of this document