Non-Compliance of S. 36B Central Excise Act Requirements: CESTAT quashes Excise Duty Demand

The Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) recently ruled that excise duty demands cannot be based solely on computer printouts unless they comply with the mandatory conditions outlined in Section 36B of the Central Excise Act. In this case, the authorities used data from printouts taken from computer systems to claim the appellant was receiving unreported cash from clients. However, CESTAT found that the necessary certifications and procedures, such as verifying the reliability of the electronic data and its extraction process, were not followed. The Tribunal emphasized that computer-generated evidence is secondary in nature and can only be accepted if strict conditions—like producing proper certificates and compliance with the law—are met. In the absence of such compliance, the evidence was ruled inadmissible, leading to the quashing of the demand.