Jawahar Lal Gupta, J.

1. Is a Central Excise Officer debarred from arresting a person without a warrant despite the fact that he has reasons to believe that the person is liable to be punished under the Central Excise Act, 1944? This is the short question that arises for consideration in these two writ petitions. Learned Counsel for the parties have referred to the facts in C.W.P. No. 1647 of 1999. These may be briefly noticed.

2. The petitioner is the Managing Director of M/s. GCUL Limited. This company has its registered office in Village Khandsa, District Gurgaon. It is engaged in the manufacture and export of terry towels. The petitioner claims that

#28;the company is a 100% Export Oriented Unit.#29; It is #28;exempted from paying the Central Excise Duty on the terry towels being manufactured and exported.....#29;

3. Till July, 1996, Mr. S.K. Aggarwal was working as the General Manager of the Company. He was looking after the day to day affairs and was #28;the authorised signatory as far as the Central Excise Act, 1944 ..... is concerned.#29; He worked as General Manager till July, 1996. After that, Mr. Sandeep Aggarwal was authorised by a resolution dated July 12, 1996