Page 136 - ELT_15th June 2020_VOL 372_Part 6th

814 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372

Excise Act, 1944 not empowers the Department to attach any property of an
assessee/person on the ground that such person or assessee may be liable to
pay the Department any amount towards meeting the dues under the Central
Excise Act, 1944 or the Rules framed thereunder - Department cannot attach
any other property of the petitioner other than any excisable goods and also
cannot restrain the petitioner from lifting the plants and machineries by tak-
ing recourse of Section 11 of Central Excise Act, 1944. [paras 13, 14]
Petition disposed of
REPRESENTED BY : Ms. S.K. Kejriwal, Advocate, for the Petitioner
[Judgment (Oral)]. - Heard Ms. S.K. Kejriwal, Learned Counsel for the
petitioner and Mr. B. Sarma, Learned Standing Counsel for the Excise Depart-
ment.
2. The petitioner, which is a Company incorporated under the Compa-
nies Act, 1956 having its registered office at Pan Parag House, 24/19 in Kanpur
(Uttar Pradesh), carries out the business of manufacture and sale of certain
gutkha products. In course of their business, the petitioner amongst others, also
owned two manufacturing units/factories/industries namely Unit-1 and Unit-2,
which are located at A-1 to A-4 Industrial Estate, Cinnamara, Jorhat.
3. As per Notification No. 8/2004-C.E. of the Under Secretary to the
Government of Assam in the Finance Department, issued under Section 5A(1) of
the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 3(3) of the Additional Duties of
Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 and Section 136(3) of the Finance
Act, 2001, certain exemptions were granted in respect of excise duties falling un-
der sub-heading 2401.90, 2402.00, 2404.41, 2404.49, 2404.50 or 2404.00 of the First
Schedule and the Second Schedule of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, from the
whole of duties of excise, additional duties of excise leviable under Central Ex-
cise Tariff Act, the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act
and National Calamity Contingent duty leviable under Section 136(1) of the Fi-
nance Act.
4. In the said notification, the said exemptions are stated to be in super-
session of the earlier notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of
Finance (Department of Revenue) No. 69/2003-Central Excise, dated 25-8-2003.
5. The aforesaid exemptions were granted subject to certain conditions,
which amongst others, is condition F, which provides that the investments made
under the said notification, shall not be allowed to be withdrawn before the expi-
ry of 10 years from the date on which the investment is made, except in a case
where the investment withdrawn is reinvested in the same manner as specified
in the notification.
6. In the aforesaid manner, the petitioner had made certain investments
and the last of the investment was made on or before 31-3-2005 as reflected in
Annexure-E page 25 of the writ petition. Accordingly, Clause-F of the notifica-
tion dated 21-1-2004 would imply that the investment made by the petitioner on
or before 31-3-2005 cannot be withdrawn by them before expiry of ten years,
thereby meaning that they cannot withdrawn before 31-3-2015.
7. In the aforesaid circumstance, the petitioner made an application
dated 3-10-2015 to the Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax at Dibru-
garh requesting the authorities to allow them to remove the capital investment
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