Real judgements, distilled

Legal Case Shots

Court judgements broken down into the case type, how the decision played out, and the lesson worth remembering, with the full judgement available as a PDF.

Tax & Customs LawSupreme Court of India

Commissioner of Central Excise v. M/s. Grasim Industries Ltd. Through its Secretary and connected matters

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 473Decided 11 May 2018
Civil Appeal No. 3159 of 2004, Civil Appeal No. 2261 of 2006, Civil Appeal No. 1382 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 7272 of 2005, Civil Appeal Nos. 2003-2004 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 2534 of 2009, Civil Appeal No. 2430 of 2010, Civil Appeal Nos. 2934-2935 of 2008, Civil Appeal Nos. 2982-2985 of 2005, Civil Appeal No. 2986 of 2005, Civil Appeal No. 3528 of 2008, Civil Appeal No. 2363 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 3455 of 2004, Civil Appeal No. 4820 of 2008, Civil Appeal No. 4696 of 2011, Civil Appeal Nos. 7174-7175 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 7143 of 2005, Civil Appeal No. 6984 of 2011, Civil Appeal No. 6695 of 2008, Civil Appeal Nos. 2246-2247 of 2008, Civil Appeal No. 253 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 8541 of 2009, Civil Appeal No. 445 of 2010, Civil Appeal No. 2705 of 2012
Justice Ranjan Gogoi · Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

This five-judge judgment answers questions of law; it does not decide the individual appeals. A two-judge bench referred three questions on the interplay between Sections 3 and 4 of the Central Excise Act and the meaning of transaction value, seeing a conflict between Union of India v. Bombay Tyre International and CCE, Pondicherry v. Acer India Ltd.

Decision Breakdown

This is not a final judgment in the individual appeals. The Court answered the three referred questions on how the measure of excise duty under Section 4 relates to the levy under Section 3. It did not allow or dismiss any of the connected appeals, which remained to be decided on that basis.

Lesson Learnt

The measure of excise duty can include elements beyond manufacturing cost, as long as the levy remains on manufacture. The individual appeals were still to be decided.

Commissioner of Central Excise v. M/s. Grasim Industries Ltd. Through its Secretary and connected matters – Legal Case Shots | LegalAware