Dictatorship of the proletariat is said to have degenerated into the dictatorship of the secretariat in the USSR, which caused the undoing of communism there. Here we shall see how the recent pronouncement by the Supreme Court in the case of Paper Products Ltd vs Commissioner of Excise (1999) 7 SCC 84 has brought in a sort of dictatorship of the secretariat. The ruling is that even the appellate tribunal in customs and excise is bound by the executive fiat (circular) on classification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (Which is an arm of the secretariat of the ministry of