A. M. AHMADI, M. P. THAKKAR, R. C. MANKAD, J.

( 1 ) HEADS the petitioners manufacturers of textile goods at Ahmedabad (who have recovered the excise duty from the consumers) win- (and make a windfall profit the dootrine of unjust enrichment notwithstanding)- Tails the consumers who have already suffered the burden of the levy lose. Such are the implications of the problem posed in this group of petitions raising a question which one might be tempted to call a million dollar question but for the fact that it would be a gross understatement. For the question if answered the way desired by the petitioners can cost the Revenue hundreds of millions of rupees (recovered over last several years by way of duty which will have to be refused to the manufactures all over India)

( 2 ) ). For more than 30 years even since the enactment of Excise Act in 1944 manufacturers of goods all over India have been paying excise duty at the prescribed rates. Wherever duty is payble ad valorem it is being paid under section 3 read with sec. 4 or the Excise Act on the valuation made on the basis of the wholesale price fetched by the goods at the factory gate or the price at which the same could reasonably be

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