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TMI Blog2010 (4) TMI 412X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with Rule 9(2) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 and imposed on them equal amount of penalty under Section 11AC of the Act. Interest on duty under Section 11AB was also demanded. Besides this, a penalty of Rs. 25,000/- was imposed on the assessee under Rule 226 of the Central Excise Rules. An amount of Rs. 1.25 lakhs which was voluntarily deposited by the party during the course of investigation was appropriated towards the above demand of duty. The appeal filed by the assessee against the order of adjudication was rejected by the learned Commissioner (Appeals). Hence the present appeal of the assessee. 2. Though, in this appeal, the appellant disowned duty liability, there is no serious challenge to the demand of duty at this stage inasm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills - 2009 (238) E.L.T. 3 (S.C.). 4. With regard to the penalty of Rs. 25,000/- imposed on the appellant, it is submitted by the learned counsel that the maximum penalty prescribed at the relevant point of time under Rule 226 was Rs. 2,000/- and that the other pro visions of Central Excise Rules invoked by the original authority were not penal provisions. We have heard the learned JDR on this aspect as well. 5. After considering the submissions, we are not in a position to follow the Hon'ble High Court's judgment which was passed in Exotic Associates case (supra) inasmuch as the Hon'ble High Court itself stipulated therein that it shall not be treated as precedent. It was only on the strength of the High Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... x Court in Dharamendra Textile Processors case and the view taken in that case was clarified by the Court in Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills case. It is difficult for us to assume that any proviso to Section 11AC was left out by the Apex Court. 7. In that view of the matter, we sustain the penalty equal to duty imposed on the appellant by the lower authorities, now that the duty liability cast on the assessee by invoking the proviso to Section 11A(1) of the Act on the basis of "suppression of facts with intent to evade payment of duty" stands conceded. When the liability under the proviso to Section 11A(1) stands conceded, the requirement of Section 11AC stands fulfilled. This is the reason why we are up holding the penalty imposed on t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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