Full Judgment
2. The applicant manufactures radiator cores, which are to be incorporated in heaters, which it supplied to manufacturers of air conditioners for motor vehicles. These cores received in them heated water from the car's radiator and by means of a blower arrangement, the air coming into the engine is passed through the honeycomb structure of the core, resulting in its being heated. This air is circulated to heat the interior of the motor vehicle. In the order impugned in this appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals) has not accepted the claim made by the manufacturer for classification of these goods under Heading 8419 of the Tariff as heat exchangers. He has held the goods rightly classifiable under Heading 8415.00 as parts of air conditioners.
3. Prima facie there are two strong objections to the Commissioner's view. Firstly, the Explanatory Notes to the Heading 8415 of the Harmonised System of Nomenclature themselves provide that components of air conditioning machine, if presented as separate element are to be classifiable under the respective headings, and not as parts of air conditioning machine. Prima facie therefore the goods cannot be classifiable under Heading 84.15. The Commissioner has declined to consider these goods to be heat exchangers because of the description given in the Explanatory Notes. This description appears to indicate that the heat exchanger must function by transferring the heat from streams of fluids flowing parallel by each separated by metal barrier as a result of which heat is transferred from one stream to another.
Strictly speaking, this description would not apply to this goods.
However, they appear prima facie to be covered by the general description of heat exchangers, e.g., the McGraw Hill Dictionary of Science and Technology finds heat exchangers to be "any device, such as an automobile radiator, that transfers heat from one fluid to another or to the environment." Since water and air are both fluids, the goods are prima fade heat exchangers. Even otherwise, if we exclude classification under this heading, classification would not be under Heading 8415.
4. On this prima facie view of the matter, we waive deposit of the duty and penalty and stay their recovery.
5. In view of the recurring nature of the appeal, we list the appeal on 14-3-2002.