Judgment:
1. This application seeks waived of pre-deposit and stay of recovery in respect of a total amount of duty demanded of Rs. 4,60,534/- from the applicants. There is no representation for the applicants (appellants) despite notice, nor is there any request for adjournment. We have examined the records and heard ld. SDR.2. The appellants, an EOU, imported capital goods for granite quarries and cleared the same duty-free claiming the benefit of Notification No.58/2000-Cus. dated 8-5-2000 in respect of basic customs duty and Notification No. 37/2000-CE dated 8-5-2000 in respect of additional duty of customs (CVD). Either of these Notifications had stipulated a condition that the quarries shall be in the name of the importer either on lease basis or on ownership basis. The Department found that this condition was not fulfilled by the importer inasmuch as the quarries declared by them were owned by the State Government and were held under lease by TAMIN. It was also found that, in the lease agreement between the appellants and TAMIN, there was no provision for sub-lease of the property by TAMIN. On this basis, the original authority denied the benefit of exemption under the above Notifications to the importer and demanded the above duty from them. It has also imposed a penalty on the party. The first appellate authority sustained the demand of duty and vacated the penalty. Hence the assessee's appeal. We have not found prima facie case for the appellants. We have also examined the case law cited in the present application. The common thread discernible in the cited cases is that exemption Notification requires to be strictly construed. In the present case, the Notifications stipulated a mandatory requirement, which was that the quarries where the capital goods were intended to be used should either be owned by the importer or be held by them under lease. On strict interpretation, the benefit of the Notifications would not be available to an importer who did not have quarries on ownership basis or on lease basis. The lower authorities appear to have correctly denied the benefit of the Notifications to the appellants. There is no plea of financial hardships in the present application. We direct the appellants to pre-deposit the entire amount of duty within four weeks from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order and report compliance on 12-12-2006.