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Commissioner of Central Excise, Hyderabad-IV v. M/s. Stangen Immuno Diagnostics

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 9157 of 2003)Decided 19 Mar 2015
Civil Appeal No. 9157 of 2003
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

This order sends the case back; it does not decide the dispute. A small scale unit used the brand name Stangen, which was also used by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, owned by the same family. The question was whether it lost a concessional excise duty exemption for using another person's brand name. The adjudicating authority had dropped the proceedings and the tribunal dismissed the Department's appeal.

Decision Breakdown

This is not a final decision on the dispute. The Court held that the tribunal was wrong to say the bar did not apply because the goods were different, and clarified that use of another person's brand name on different goods can also attract the bar. It accepted that the unit may have been using the brand name in its own right as owner, a factual question never examined below. It set aside the judgment and sent the matter back to the Commissioner for a fresh decision on that issue, leaving the limitation plea open.

Lesson Learnt

The excise exemption bar on using the brand name of another person can apply even when the goods differ from the brand owner's goods. There is no final ruling yet on whether this unit is caught by the bar.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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