9911796707
TMI Blog1999 (12) TMI 809X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tory (the assessee for short) with an option to redeem them on payment of fine and imposing penalties on the assessee as well as Ramesh Agrawal, its General Manager, the other appellant. 2. The show cause notice adjudicated upon by the Collector in the impugned order, was in consequence of the interception by the officers of a truck relating to goods processed by the appellant, and further investigations into the activities of the company. The demand for duty is made on three different counts. The first of Rs. 13,822.00 is on goods seized from the shop of the appellant at Old Hanuman Lane, Bombay; the second of Rs. 63.181/- is of goods seized outside the shop at the Old Hanuman Lane; The remaining demand of Rs. 4,17,483.20 is made on the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... shop on the next day to the same premises. There was no gate pass or other documents covering the transport of these goods. 5 Rule 52A, as it stood at the relevant time, provided that no excisable goods shall be delivered from a factory or warehouse except there are gate passes consigned by the owner of the factory or its authorised agent. It is no doubt true, as the advocate for the appellants contends, that the gate pass is not required to be preserved for ever, or that it should be given to the consignee or even it must be produced on demand. However, it is reasonable for the officers to expect that some evidence of payment of duty on the goods is produced or that at least evidence of the trade of these goods in the normal legal manner ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was recorded on 15-11-1991. In that statement he says about these goods that they were purchased from Agrawal Textile, Kalbadevi Road, Bombay of which he was the proprietor during the period. Now the question that arises is why Ramesh Agrawal could not have come forward with this statement earlier. The further the question that arises is whether why Raminder Verma, the Office-cum-Godown Manager could not say that these goods had come in from the assessee s factory but from somewhere else. He, in fact, specifically says that they were received from the assessee s factory. That statement has not been retracted. Considering the immediacy of the statement, and the fact that it was not recorded and in the absence of any document that date about ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... register are the correct figures. It is on the difference between these figures and the figures in the statutory records of the appellant , that the duty has been worked. 9. The assessee s contention is that outward register was maintained in its warehouse and given, which was the stand taken by Ramesh Agrawal. This statement has not been given sufficient weighment. It is contended that statement of Raminder Verma and Dilipkumar Agrawal are not admissible as evidence because statutory cautions as required in the Criminal Procedure Code has not been administered. Advocate relies upon the judgment of a learned single judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Assistant Collector v. Duncan Agro Industries Ltd. - 1992 (57) E.L.T. 545. In that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d or otherwise dealt with, according to the Criminal Procedure Code. In other words, the Criminal Procedure Code is a parent statute provides for investigation, enquire into, and trial of cases in Criminal Courts of various designation under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. 12. The provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code thus would not apply to the adjudication proceedings under the Customs Act. Further, the caution to be administered to the person who is to make the confession is that the confession that he may make may be used against him. The judgment of the learned single judge was rendered in the case on an appeal against an order of the magistrate acquitting the respondents in a prosecution under the Central Excise Act. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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