Sukhdev Singh Kang, J.

1. Whether persons engaged in building bodies of buses and trucks on the chassis supplied by the customers become manufacturers of motor vehicles as defined under Section XVII, Chapter 87, Heading Nos. 87.02 and 87.04 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (the. Act, for short) and are liable to pay excise duty and to take licence, are the issues raised in this bunch of writ petitions, i.e. C.W.P. Nos. 5256, 5732 and 5733 of 1986.

2. The petitioners are engaged in building bodies of trucks and buses on the chassis supplied by their customers. The petitioners are not licensed to and are not in a position to manufacture motor vehicles. They are small scale units whose annual turnover does not exceed Rs. 10 lakhs each. Section 2 of the Act prescribes the rates of excise duty leviable under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (Act 1 of 1944) and they are specified in the Schedule. Section 3 of the Central Excises and Salt Act is the charging section. It reads as under :-

"3. Duties specified in the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 to be levied : (1) There shall be levied and collected in such manner as may be prescribed d