THE COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE, CUSTOMS AND SERVICE TAX, CALICUT vs M/S. CERA BOARD AND DOORS, KANNUR, KERALA — C.A. No. 7240 - 7248/2009

Summary The Supreme Court of India upheld CESTAT's decisions remanding seven batches of excise duty evasion cases involving plywood manufacturers for re-adjudication. The court found that both adjudicating authorities and CESTAT, while correctly identifying undervaluation and duty evasion, failed to properly apply Section 4 valuation methods. The court clarified that for pre-01.07.2000 sales, "normal price" under Section 4(1)(a) applies to wholesale trade transactions, while post-01.07.2000 sales require "transaction value" assessment. Cases not meeting these statutory conditions must be valued under the applicable Valuation Rules, not through arbitrary estimation across all transactions. This case analysis is maintained by casestatus.in based on publicly available court records.