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TMI Blog1997 (5) TMI 273X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Heading No. 84.72 of the Tariff. Heading No. 84.72 of the Tariff covered the following : "Other office machines (for example, hectograph or stencil duplicating machines, addressing machines, automatic banknote dispensers, coin-sorting machines, coin-counting or wrapping machines, pencil sharpening machines, perforating or stapling machines)." A show cause notice was issued to the appellants on 30-7-1987 requiring them to show cause as to why the above mentioned two items should not be classified under Heading No. 84.72 of the Tariff. The Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Bombay, who adjudicated the matter held that the correct classification of the items in question was under Heading No. 84.72 of the Tariff. The Collector of Central Excise (Appeals), Bombay, held that what the appellants were manufacturing and selling by fitting various articles and giving it a shape of one composite article was an office equipment and other office machines which by virtue of note 5 of Section notes was to be interpreted as equipment. He also rejected the contention of the appellants that no process of manufacture was involved in fitting of different articles into one composite article. 2.& ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the Tariff. The appellants had sought to classify the composite products as electronic digital clock. It is not clear from the facts on record, whether any duty had been paid on the electronic digital clocks before they were used in the composite articles, referred to above. 7. The excisable goods have to be classified in the form and at the stage as and when presented for assessment. The items presented for assessment and which are the subject matter for classification in the present proceedings were composite items. The electronic digital clock was one of the items in these composite products. The electronic digital clock, as referred to above, is a specified item in the tariff and is classifiable and dutiable as such. The manufacture of the electronic digital clock was complete before its use in the items under consideration with portfolio and calculator in one case and with pen stand and calculator in the other case. As presented for classification, they are not clocks as such, but a different article whose essential character is given by portfolio in one case and by the pen stand in the other case. 8. The clock is an instrument for measuring and showing time. I ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n apparatus, appliance or equipment. The apparatus is a compound instrument designed to carry out a specific function or for a particular use. In order to decide, whether a particular object is an apparatus, an inquiry has to be made as to what operation it performs. Appliance is a device that draws electric or other energy and produces a desired work saving or other result. The Gujarat High Court in Star Radio Electric Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax - 1971 (27) STC 367, had observed that appliance has been defined or employed as meaning a mechanical thing, an apparatus or device; an instrumental means, aid or appurtenance; a thing applied or used as a means to an end, either independently or sub-ordinately. Equipment is one or more assemblies capable of performing a complete function - an out fit, furnishings, supplies, tools for performing a job. 11. Under Section 2 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, the rates at which duties of excise are levied under the Central Excise Act, 1944, are the rates as are specified in the Schedule to the said Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985. Under Rule 2(b) of the Rules for the interpretation of the Schedule to the said Act of l 985, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... paper for the purposes of the Orissa Sales Tax Act. It is a matter of common experience that the identity of an article is associated with its primary function. It is only logical that it should be so. When a consumer buys an article, he buys it because it performs a specific function for him. There is a mental association in the mind of the consumer between the article and the need it supplies in his life. It is the functional character of the article which identifies it in his mind. In the case of a glass mirror, the consumer recalls primarily the reflective function of the article more than anything else. It is a mirror, an article which reflects images. It is referred to as a glass mirror only because the word glass is descriptive of the mirror in that glass has been used as a medium for manufacturing the mirror. The basic or fundamental character of the article lies in its being a mirror. It was observed by this Court in Delhi Cloth and General Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. - 1980 E.L.T. 383 (S.C.) = (1980) 3 SCR 1109, which was a case under the Sales Tax law : "In determining the meaning or connotation of words and expression describing an article or commodity ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... they add to the utility of the pen-holder. 14. Portfolios are classifiable under Heading No. 42.02 of the Customs Cooperation Council Nomenclature (CCCN). Chapter 42 of the CCCN covers hand bags and similar containers. Heading No. 42.02 covered, among others, portfolios (refer Explanatory Notes to the CCCN at page 620). In the Central Excise Tariff, Heading No. 42.01 covered, among others, travel goods, handbags and similar containers. We consider that the classification of the items in which clock and calculators are fixed on the portfolios may have to be considered under Heading No. 42.01 of the Tariff. 15. Similarly, pen-holders, pencil-holders and similar holders were classifiable under Heading No. 96.08 of the Tariff. According to the CCCN Explanatory Notes at page 1758 pen-holders were classifiable under Heading No. 98.03 and were covered whether or not in one piece. The corresponding classification under the Central Excise Tariff is under Heading No. 96.08. 16. The portfolio as shown to us during the course of hearing could not be considered as an article of paper or of paper board of Chapter 48 of the Tariff as pleaded by the appellants as an alternate ple ..... 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