IMPORTANT POINT
A provision providing for an exemption has to be construed strictly.

JUDGMENT

D.K. Jain, J. —

1. This Civil Appeal, under Section 130-E(b) of the Customs Act, 1962 (for short “the Act”), is directed against order dated 4th April, 2003 passed by the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, as it then existed, (for short “the Tribunal”), in Appeal No. C/298/02- Mum. By the impugned order, the Tribunal has allowed the appeal preferred by the Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai, holding that the appellant is not entitled to claim the benefit of Exemption Notification No. 17/2001/Cus (General Exemption No. 121), issued by the Min- istry of Finance, Government of India on 1st March, 2001.

2. Briefly stated, the facts, material for adjudication of the issue arising in this appeal, are as follows:

The appellant namely, M/s Gammon India Ltd. (for short “Gam-mon”) and one M/s Atlanta Infrastructure Ltd., Mumbai, (for short “At-lanta”) both incorporated as Public Limited Companies, entered into a joint venture agreement on 18th September, 2000. The joint venture was named and styled as “Gammon Atlanta JV”. The agreement was entered into for the purpose of submitting a bid to the National Highways Author-ity of India (for short “NHAI”) for award of a contract for construction of 31.40 Kilometers of road on National Highway-5. The terms of the agreement, inter-alia, provided that: each of the said parties would share financial responsibilities in the form of guarantees, securities etc. to the extent of 50% of the project value; the venture would be managed by set-ting up of a management board consisting of a Chairman and one Direc-tor to be nominated by Gammon and a Joint Chairman and another Direc-tor to be nominated by Atlanta. Although Gammon was to be designated as the lead partner to the venture but both the companies were to be jointly and severally liable to NHAI for due execution of the contract.

3. The bid tendered by the said joint venture was accepted by NHAI and an agreement dated 20th December, 2000 was executed between NHAI, referred to as the “Employer” on the one part and M/s Gam- mon-Atlanta JV, referred to as the “contractor”, on the other part. On behalf of Gammon-Atlanta JV, the agreement was signed by the repre- sentatives of both the companies, i.e. Gammon and Atlanta.

4. On 1st March, 2001, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 25 of the Act, the Central Government, issued the afore-noted Exemption Notification, inter alia, exempting the goods of the description specified in Column (3) of the Table given thereun- der, read with the relevant List appended thereto and falling within the Chapter, Heading no. or sub-heading no. of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, as specified in the corresponding entry in Column (2) of the said Table. Serial No. 217 of the said Table granted full exemption from basic Customs duty and additional Customs duty, on the goods falling under Chapter 84 specified in List 11, required for construction of roads. However, the said exemption was subject to certain conditions, enumerated in the said notification. Condition No. 38, relevant for this case, reads as follows:

“38. If,-

(a) the goods are imported by-

(i) the ministry of Surface Transport, or

(ii) a person who has been awarded a contract for the construction of roads in India by or on behalf of the Ministry of Surface Trans- port, by the National Highway Authority of India, by the Public Works Department of a State Government or by a road construction corporation under the control of the Govern- ment of a State or Union Territory; or

(iii) a person who has been named as a sub-con- tractor in the contract referred to in (ii) above for the construction of roads in India by or on behalf of the Ministry of Surface Transport, by the National Highway Author- ity of India, by Public Works Department of a State Government or by a road construc- tion corporation under the control of the Government of a State or Union Territory;

(b) the importer, at the time of im