The Bombay High Court has held that once the petitioner’s application under Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (SVLDR Scheme) accepting the payment of excise duty is accepted, the declarant is immune from imposition of any redemption fine and, therefore the benefit of the scheme gets extended to the redemption fine also.
The bench of Justice M. S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain has observed that The only ground on which the application was rejected was that the Scheme does not cover the redemption fine which as observed by us is contrary to the decision of this Court in the case of M/s. Esbee Electrotech LLP. It is settled position that the rejection order has to be tested on the touchstone of what is recorded in the said order and nothing can be added or subtracted therefrom or improvised either by way of reply or by way of arguments.
The petitioner is engaged in the business of manufacture of electrical switches, regulators, sockets, plugs, holders, indicators, plates, surfaces boxes etc.
A show cause notice was issued by the respondents inter alia seeking to confiscate the goods and impose penalty upon the petitioner under Rule 25 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002. Prior to that a search was conducted at the premises of the petitioner and goods were seized. Second show cause notice was issued seeking to demand Central Excise Duty for the period April 2015 to 2017-18.
Meanwhile Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 was introduced by respondent no.1 for settling the disputes which were pending in litigation at various stages.
The petitioner filed a declaration in Form SVLDRS-1 for settling the dispute with regard to the show cause notice dated 2 May 2019. The said application was processed and final discharge certificate in Form SVLDRS – 4 was issued on 5 December 2019.
The petitioner filed another declaration in Form SVLDRS-1 for settling the dispute with regard to another show cause notice dated 27 March 2017 which sought to confiscate the goods and impose penalty under Rule 25 of the Central Excise Rules. The Designated Committee issued Form SVLDRS-2 calculating Nil duty payable. However, on 9 December 2019, the Designated Committee rejected the declaration filed on 11 October 2019 on the ground that the confiscation of the goods for which the show cause notice was issued is not covered under the Scheme.
The petitioner once again filed a declaration in Form SVLDRS-1 with respect to the same show cause notice dated 27 March 2017 which came to be rejected on the ground that the redemption fine is not covered by the Scheme and therefore, the petitioner has challenged the said rejection in this writ petition.
The ground on which the petitioner has been denied the benefit of the scheme is that the redemption fine is not covered by the SVLDR Scheme.
The court quashed the rejection of the Declaration in Form SVLDRS-1.
Case Details
Case Title: Juice Electricals Pvt. Ltd. Versus Union of India
Case No.: Writ Petition No.12845 Of 2023
Date: 6 December 2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Prakash Shah
Counsel For Respondent: Jitendra Mishra
