The Kolkata bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) quashed the revocation of the Customs Broker (CB) license on illegal import of sodium benzoate on the ground of Non-violation of provisions of Customs House Agents Licensing Regulation (CHALR), 2004.
Mishra & Mishra (Agency) Enterprises, the appellant assessee was a Customs Broker for filing a bill of entry based on the import documents received from the importer and they filed the bill of entry for the import of Sodium Benzoate from the information received by the importer.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for confirming the revocation of the Customs Broker license and for the forfeiture of the security deposit of CHA.
R.N.Bandapadhyay, the counsel for the assessee contended that there was no violation of Regulations under 13 (a), 13 (d), 13 (o), and 19 (8) of CHALR.
Also submitted that the revocation of CB license was not as per the law and liable to be deleted.
Tariq Sulaiman, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the forfeiture of security deposit and revocation of license was as per the law and liable to be sustained.
The Bench observed that As there was no direct involvement of the CHA and for merely having filed the import documents as per the instructions of the importer, forfeiture of the security deposit was indeed too harsh a punishment that indeed was not called for in the given circumstances and the assessee cannot be subjected to penal liabilities at a drop of a hat without expressly bringing to fore their direct involvement/mens rea.
The two-member bench comprising Ashok Jindal (Judicial) and Rajeev Tandon (Technical) quashed the revocation of the license.
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