2006 (9) TMI 475

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..... Delhi Div. visited the factory premises of the appellant and found some unaccounted finished goods. When they could not get any proper answer from the supervisor of the factory they called the officers of Ghaziabad Div. During the proceedings Panchnama was drawn with witnesses and the offending goods were seized by the Central Excise officers. Show cause notice proposing to confiscate the seized goods and to impose the penalty on the appellant was issued. The appellant contested the show cause notice on merits as well as on preliminary objection. The adjudicating authority did not accept the contentions of the appellant and confiscated the goods with an option to redeem the same on payment of redemption fine, and also imposed penalties on .....

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..... dings at any given point of time till the reply to the show cause notice. It is also his submission that once the Panchnama is recorded under provisions of Section 14 of the Central Excise Act, subsequent denial is contrary to the provisions of Section 14 of the Act. It is submitted that the appellants did not produce any record when the officers visited the factory of the appellants, if there would have been any record it was open to the appellants to produce the same when the officers were doing verification of their stocks. He submitted that the appellants were aware why show cause notice was issued to them, and hence, non-mentioning of Sub-clause of Rule 173Q is not detrimental to the case. 5. Considered the submissions made by both s .....

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..... n for the adjudicating authority to take this matter in a different way i.e. asking for cross-examination of the witnesses to counter the affidavits and bringing the truth on record. Instead of this the adjudicating authority simply brushed aside the affidavits, summararily. 6. Since the proceedings in Panchnama are in itself doubtful, any confiscation order relying on such panchnama would be incorrect, as the seizure of the goods is in itself is clouded, further proceedings on such seizure would also get vitiated. 7. Without going into the merits and the other arguments made by both sides, I find that on this issue itself the orders of the lower authorities are unsustainable. Accordingly, in view of the facts and circumstances, as ment .....

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