Judgment:
1. The question for consideration in this appeal is whether the appellant was entitled to import without a specific licence, goods described as "solar lights". In the order impugned in the appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals) has confirmed the view expressed by the Assistant Commissioner goods which required specific licence for import.
2. The appellant is absent and unrepresented despite notice. I have read the memorandum of appeal and heard departmental representative.
3. At the time of importation, the import policy permitted the import of solar lights. The reason advanced by both the authorities is that the important lights have been connected only by means of wires to solar panel, detached from some other equipment for use in these lamps.
They therefore concluded that the goods were not solar lamps. The primary objection to this view if that there is no basis whatsoever on which it can be said that the solar panels which were found attached to these lamps were not meant to be part of the lamp. Neither the Assistant Commissioner nor the Commissioner (Appeals) has cited technical evidence on which they based their conclusion. The visual examination on which they rely is that of a lay person not an examination. Such examination obviously does not provide sufficient basis for the conclusion.
4. Even assuming that solar lights in question were ordinarily parts of some equipment, it cannot be denied that once they were attached to the lamps and the whole imported together, what was imported was solar lamps, i.e., lamps in which solar energy was converted by means of a solar cell in it utilised by the lamp for illumination. Neither the Commissioner (Appeals) nor the Assistant Commissioner say that the lamp could not function as a solar lamp and did not use solar energy. On the other hand, the Commissioner (Appeals) in support of conclusion, says that "the impugned goods are solar gardenlite and interior decoration lamp is an energy saving", and she concludes that the imported goods are ordinary lights which have been manipulated and connected to solar cells. To my understanding in the form in which they were imported, the goods, in fact, are solar lamps, a lamp which functions by means of solar energy. The only difference between a solar light and ordinary lamp is source of energy. The goods that the appellant imported consisting of an assembly of solar panels and electrically operated lamps, were therefore solar lamps and therefore permitted for import.