1996 (6) TMI 213

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..... appellants are not ayurvedic medicines and they are classifiable under Tariff Heading 3003.10. 2. The learned Counsel contended before us that to be classified as an ayurvedic drug the essential qualifications are only two : (i) that they should be so understood in common parlance, and (ii) that they should find a place in ayurvedic treatises. He pointed out that the synthetic nature of some of the ingredients used by the appellants will not take away the essential characteristics of their products as ayurvedic medicines. It was his contention that the use of some IP products like menthol, citric acid, ammonium chloride, etc. will not take away the prodcuts from the purview of ayurvedic preparations. In this connection, he placed s .....

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..... he Tribunal did not accept this classification. The Tribunal, in the order under appeal, upheld the contention of the excise authorities that the balm was not an ayurvedic medicine because its main ingredients were Menthol IP, Camphor IP, Turpentine IP and Methyl Salicylate IP, which were of a synthetic nature. The contention of the appellants that the same ingredients had an ayurvedic nomenclature as could be found in authoritative text books was rejected because, according to the Tribunal, ayurvedic science recognises only the use of natural extracts from medicinal plants and these could not be substituted by modern chemical ingredients. The Tribunal said that the appellant had imported synthetic grade IP chemicals and had with the intent .....

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..... l to pudina ka tel and thymol and turpentine to ajwan ka phool , etc. But the Hon ble Supreme Court held that the Tribunal overlooked the fact that the same article can have a use both in ayurvedic and in the western sciences and be known by different names. Therefore, it was held that the Tribunal was in error in considering that the arcicles were synthetic in nature. It was held in that case the articles afore-mentioned were articles known both to ayurvedic and western sciences and were refined for use in medicaments. Since they were known to ayruveda, their use in the making of balm did not make itself a non-ayurvedic product. On the same analogy, the mere fact that in the products in question which are `Hero Super Balm , `Amrutanjan .....

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