Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Dr. Arijit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia

JUDGMENT

Arijit Pasayat, J.

1. These appeals involve identical question of law and are, therefore, disposed of by this common judgment. The controversy relates to the financial year 1997-98. Post 1997- 98 the tariff entry provides that the rate is nil. The basic facts are noted in the appeal filed by Continental Foundation Joint Venture-the appellant in Civil Appeal No. 3139 of 2002.

2. The appellant M/s Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation (in short 'NJPC') is a Joint venture between the Government of India and Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, set up for the purpose of construction of a power-project between the towns of Nathpa-Jhakri in Himachal Pradesh known an Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation funded by the World Bank. The civil work relating to the project was allotted to three construction companies viz. M/s Continental Foundation Joint Venture (in short 'CFJV'), M/s Nathpa Jhakri Joint Venture (in short 'NJJV') and M/s Jai Prakash Hyundai Consortium, (in short 'JPHC'). The agreement was entered into by M/s NJPC and the construction companies to provide inter alia 'mix concrete' for execution of various items of work under the contract.

3. The Commissioner of Central Excise, Chandigarh issued a show cause notice dated 20.1.1999 to all the above parties alleging that the construction companies employed by M/s NJPC were manufacturing Ready Mix Concrete (in short 'RMC') on which no central excise duty is being paid. Since the said RMC falls under Chapter Heading No. 3824.20 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (in short 'Tariff Act') and is subject to Central Excise duty under Central Excise Act, 1944 (in short the 'Act'), duty is payable. All the three parties are adopting the same method of manufacture of RMC for which the rock is blasted from the designated quarry of M/s NJPC. It is transported to the crusher and crushed to the specified sizes and specific quantity at the project site. Some aggregate, cement and sand are also produced from the crushing plant set up at the site. Some natural sand is also used. The aggregate and sand are transported and stored in bins adjacent to the automatic batching plant. The cement purchased from the market is stored in the cement salons at the site. The batching plant is an automatic plant which regulates and delivers the specified sizes and quantities of aggregate, sand and cement into the mixing drums through the built- in-conveyor. The admixture for water reduction or air entraining i........