New Delhi: Tobacco giant ITC Ltd today (Sep 10, 2004) won a big relief in the Supreme Court, which set aside a demand of Rs 8.03 bn slapped on the cigarette manufacturers by the Government on account of alleged evasion of excise duty.

ITC had, in fact, won the case yesterday (Sep 9, 2004) but to its dismay, found the order withdrawn by the Court within minutes of pronouncing the judgement as the court took serious exception to the manner in which the unsigned copy of the judgement was taken out of the court room by a counsel without permission.

A two-judge Bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal, which had warned yesterday that taking the judgement out of the courtroom would prove costly, today came and pronounced the judgement allowing ITC's petition and dismissing the petition filed by the Commissioner of Central Excise.

No mention was made by the Bench, of which Justice Reddi was also part of, about the application filed by the concerned advocate requesting the Bench to accept his sincere apologies and not to penalise the client for his "inadvertent" mistake in taking the judgement out of the courtroom.

The Apex Court upheld the appeal of ITC challenging an order of the Central Excise, Gold Control Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) upholding the Excise Department's demand excepting giving few concessions to the cigarette manufacturer.

The Department had alleged that the additional excise duty of Rs 803 crores was liable to be paid by the ITC Ltd as its cigarettes were sold at a price higher than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on the cigarette packets.