At the center of the controversy, in three writ petitions, namely, WP(C) 591/2008, WP(C) 1048/2008 and WP(C) 2814/2008, lies the controversy with regard to the cor­rect interpretation of the three notifications, namely, NotificationNo.69/2003-CE, dated 25.08.2003, Notification No.08/2004-CE, dated 21.01.2004, and Notification No.28/2004-CE, dated 09.07.2004, issued by Gov­ernment of India, Ministry of Finance (De­partment of Revenue), New Delhi, granting exemption from payment of excise duty and additional duty of excise in exercise of pow­ers under Sub-Section (1) of Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, read with Sec­tion 3(3) of Additional Duty of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957, and Sub-Section (13 6) of Section 3 of the Finance Act, 2001.

2. Having arisen out of the same Notifica­tions, which embody the schemes of exemp­tion from payment of excise duty and, being inextricably linked with each other, all the three writ petitions, which include the present one, namely, WP(C) No. 591 of 2008, have been heard together on the request made by the learned counsel for the parties concerned. For the sake of clarity and precision and, also to avoid r