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Judgment
The appellants were served with a notice to show cause why they should not be required to pay Central Excise duty for clearances of material manufactured from imported copper scrap during the period January, 1978 to September, 1980, on the basis that they had wrongly availed of a set-off in violation of the provisions of an Exemption Notification inasmuch as they had used imported copper scrap on which they had not paid the corresponding countervailing duty. The show cause notice was upheld all the way up to the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal.
The Exemption Notification provided for the exemption if the goods were made from a number of materials or combinations thereof, including :
(i) Old scrap of copper" and (iv) Copper in any crude form purchased from the market on or after the 20th day of August, 1966.
The case of the appellants before the Tribunal was based on the aforesaid Clause (iv). The Tribunal did not accept the appellants'' argument that importation could be equated to "purchased from the market".
What is now argued before us is based on the show cause notice which stated that the material had been manufactured from imported copper scrap and the words "old scrap of copper" in the aforesaid Clause (i). Even though the case before the Tribunal was on an entirely different basis, it was submitted that, having regard to terms of the show cause notice, the appellants were not estopped from arguing on the different basis. We do not agree. The appellants cannot be permitted to resile in this Court from the basis on which they argued their case before the Tribunal.
The appeal is, accordingly, dismissed with costs.