Juice Electricals Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India (Bombay High Court)
Bombay High Court held that once application under Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme [SVLDR Scheme] for payment of duty was accepted, benefit of the scheme gets extended to the redemption fine also. Accordingly, petition allowed.
Facts- The petitioner is engaged in the business of manufacture of electrical switches, regulators, sockets, plugs, holders, indicators, plates, surfaces boxes etc. On 27 March 2017, 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, Prior to that a search was conducted at the premises of the petitioner and goods worth Rs.10,06,82,932/- were seized.
Second show cause notice was issued on 2 May 2019 seeking to demand Central Excise Duty for the period April 2015 to 2017-18. On 11 October 2019, 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.
On 11 October 2019, the petitioner filed 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. On 8 November 2019, 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.
