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TMI Blog1991 (2) TMI 118X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ately for motor portion and for grinder portion and that what is manufactured is really the grinder portion and the electric motors purchased from outside from its manufacturers are attached and fixed with the grinder. The grinders as such have no electrical connection for operation by receiving electrical energy. But on the other hand the motor is placed along with and provided with pulleys for relating the grinder by means of V-belts. Thus so far as the manufacturers in question are concerned, what they really do is they manufacture the grinder and purchase the electric motors separately from another manufacturer and virtually fit up the electric motor to the steel frame of the wet grinder in the space allotted for the same and connect the wheel base of the grinder with that of the motor by using a V-belt. 3. Excise Tariff Item 33-C which was introduced by the Finance Act No. 14 of 1969 with effect from 1-3-1969 reads as follows :- (The First Schedule) Item No. Description of goods. Rate of duty 33C Domestic Electrical Appliances, not elsewhere specified. Thirty per cent ad valorem Explanation I:- "Domestic ele ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lal Shah and others v. Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Ahmedabad and others [1979 (4) Excise Law Times 377] and Shri Punit Ghar Ganti v. Union of India and another [1981 (8) E.L.T. 121] held that wet grinders will not fall under Item 33-C and the Central Excise Law being a Central enactment must be enforced uniformly throughout the country and the contrary view or stand taken by the Central Excise Authorities in Tamil Nadu cannot be countenanced. Reliance was also placed on the fact that the Special Leave Petition filed by the Department against the judgment of the Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court was rejected in limine by the Supreme Court of India and leave to appeal was refused. It was further contended that when the conclusion reached by the Collector of Central Excise in a Conference was accepted by the Central Board of Excise and Customs and the Central Government issued appropriate instructions that the manufacture and sale of wet grinders will not fall under Item 33-C of the Central Excise Tariff, it was not open to the Department to go back on the same or vary their conclusions except for sufficient and cogent reasons based on fresh facts such as subsequent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants reiterated the submissions made before the learned Single Judge and contended that the wet grinder manufactured and sold by the respondents is a domestic electrical appliance falling within Item 33-C of the Central Excise Tariff and that the learned Judge erred in placing reliance upon the decisions of the Gujarat High Court and the view expressed in some of the earlier circulars. According to the learned Counsel, it may not be correct to consider that only grinders having inbuilt motors will fall under the Tariff Item in question and the grinders operated by motors with V-belt mechanism will not fall there under. 8. Mr. A.S. Kailasam and Mr. S. Balasubramanian, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents reiterated before us the reasoning of the learned single Judge based upon the decisions of the Gujarat High Court and contended that the order of the learned Judge does not call for any interference in our hands. 9. We have been taken at length by the learned Counsel appearing on either side through the two decisions of the Gujarat High Court referred to supra and we are of the view that no exception could be taken t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssioner v. Equipment Agencies (1981) 47 S.T.C. 68, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court had an occasion to consider the scope of the expression 'electrical goods' in entry 26 of the First Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 and it was held therein that going by its ordinary connotation as also its meaning as understood in commercial parlance it will take within its scope only appliances which are exclusively dependent upon the use of electrical energy for their working, and which cannot be put to any use except in relation to the utilisation of electrical energy. It was also considered necessary that intrinsically the goods in question must be susceptible of being classified as electrical goods in the sense that they by their very nature answer the said description. In coming to such a conclusion and holding that pump sets, grinders, air-compressors, lathes etc. sold by the assessee therein cannot be said to be either goods which intrinsically fit in with the description of electrical goods or that they can be put to use only by use of electrical energy, the Division Bench placed reliance upon, among other things, the decision of a Division Bench of this Court r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ll in detail the aspect as to the nature of the process involved in fitting the electric motor to the steel frame of the wet grinder in the space allotted for the same, inasmuch as prima facie we consider that by mere process of assembling the electric motor in the already existing grinder no commercially new product as such emerges by any manufacturing process. That apart, we are also concerned more about the identity of the commodity and as to whether it answers the description of the domestic electrical appliance which we have answered in the negative already. 15. For all the above reasons, we are not persuaded in any manner to come to a different conclusion than the one arrived at by the learned Single Judge and we find no justification to take a view contra. The plea of the appellants, therefore, merits only rejection, at our hands. 16. The plea raised on behalf of the appellants regarding the maintainability of the writ petitions has been rightly repelled by the learned Single Judge and we are not convinced of the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the appellants on this aspect either. In the light of our conclusions as above, we consider it unnecessary to go int ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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