Page 134 - ELT_15th June 2020_VOL 372_Part 6th

812 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372

(ii) 1800 KWH/T as per the report by Joint Plant Committee con-
stituted by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India;
(iii) 1427 KWH/T as per the report of NISST, Mandi, Gobind-
garh given in June-July, 2006;
(iv) 650 units to 820 units/MT as per the Executive Director.
All India Induction Furnace Association, New Delhi :
(v) 851 units/MT in the case of Nagpal Steel v. CCE, Chandi-
garh reported in 2000 (125) E.L.T. 1147”.
(emphasis supplied)
In view of the aforesaid electricity consumption report, per tonnage, it
appears that the variation is from 555 units to 1800 KWH/Per Ton. This is
mainly because of the nature of the machinery utilized by the noticee. Looking
to the facts of the present case, the electricity consumption pattern as has
been given in Annexure-F, as stated in paragraph 5 of the show cause no-
tice, which is at page no. 53 of this memo of writ petition which reveals
that this petitioner has consumed electricity absolutely in consonance with the
report given by Joint Plant Committee, constituted by the Ministry of Steel,
Government of India and for few months it is even less than that. Thus, there
are varieties of report available in the markets, one could not have been cho-
sen by the respondents, arbitrarily, without carrying out the experiment of
consumption of electricity for one ton of manufacturing at the noticee’s manu-
facturing unit. This type of experiment is a must by the department,
whenever respondents are canvassing the ground of electricity consump-
tion pattern vis-à-vis clandestine removal of finished products. Other-
wise, without such experiment, if any one of the aforesaid report relied upon,
then it is arbitrariness on the part of the respondents and whenever there is any
arbitrariness, there is always violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India
because for few of the noticees such type of reports are not relied upon whereas
for rest of the assessee, as per the choice of the respondents, such type of reports
will be relied upon and in fact, this has happened in this case. Several Orders-
in-Original have been pointed out during the course of arguments by the
Counsel for the petitioner wherein electricity consumption pattern alle-
gation levelled in show cause notice and ultimately after adjudication,
the show cause notice has been dropped. Thus, without experiment is
being carried out at the premises of the noticees, use of any of the commit-
tee’s report for electricity consumption pattern always leads to arbitrariness on
the part of the respondent-department. Whenever arbitrariness is present, equal-
ity is absent. Equalities and arbitrariness are strong enemies of each other.
When equality is present, arbitrariness is absent.
6. Hence, this Court is remanding the matter to the Commissioner,
Central Excise & Service Tax, Ranchi. This Court is not much going into detail of
further arbitrariness in the Order-in-Original about the lower remuneration to
the employees of the petitioner-unit as well as the manufacturing unit is running
in loss and the profit is made from non-core activities etc. There appears to be very
high sounding reasons, but, if they are viewed with zoom lens camera, it appears that
nothing is proved by the respondents. “Low remuneration” is a relative word and
therefore, statement of the employees of the noticee, ought to have been reduced
to writing by the respondents-department. If the employees are stating that they
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