Paul and Sons Wood Designs India vs Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs

C.N. Ramachandran Nair, J.—The petitioner has approached this Court alleging contempt of court by the respondents in as much as they have not released the entire records seized from the petitioner. Standing Counsel for the respondents conceded that some of the records seized and acknowledged in the seizure mahazar are missing from the department''s custody. If records are missing from the custody of the Central Excise Department they should compensate the petitioner for the consequences. According to the petitioner the records are required for production before the Sales-tax Officer-IInd Circle Trichur where the petitioner is an assessee. There cannot be any contempt of court for non-production of missing records. Therefore contempt is closed. However the petitioner is free to produce whatever records available before the STO and the STO based on accounts produced propose assessment and issue a pre-assessment notice. If any addition of turnover and assessment of tax are proposed on account of non-production of records lost while in the custody of the Central Excise Department, the petitioner can serve copy of the pre-assessment notice received on the respondents and thereafter assessment order and proceed to claim damages. It would be open to the petitioner to claim damages through any court or forum.

The Contempt of Court Case is closed with the above observations.