The Madras High Court has directed the Customs Joint Commissioner to quantify Customs duty, bond amounts, and release the consignments.
The matter pertains to import of Black Pepper of Sri Lankan origin, seizure of the same on alleged grounds of over valuation to circumvent a custom notification and the captioned matter pertains to release of consignment under Section 110A of ‘the Customs Act, 1962.
A series of orders have been made by different Single Judges as well as a Division Bench in Al Qahir International case (M/s.Al Qahir International v. The Commissioner of Customs) directing provisional release under Section 110A of said Act on certain conditions.
The single bench of Justice M.Sundar has held that the matter is directly and squarely covered and in the light of the fact that M/s.Travancore Solvents & Oils case has been made by following orders of Hon’ble Division Bench, there shall be a similar order in this matter also. To be noted, the earlier orders have been complied and there has been provisional release of the consignment which has been captured in the aforementioned order.
The court directed the Joint Commissioner of Customs is directed to quantify the duty, bond amounts etc., communicate the same to the petitioner forthwith and release the said consignment within one week of said remittance i.e., quantified duty/bond amounts/execution of bonds by the petitioner.
“It is made clear that nothing contained in this order will stand in the way of an independent inquiry by the authorities in the ongoing investigation. In other words, show cause notice, adjudication can proceed and the same can be carried to its logical end on its own merits and in accordance with law uninfluenced/untrammelled by any view or opinion expressed by this Court. Though obvious, this Court makes it clear that no opinion or view has been expressed on the merits of the matter qua allegations on which the said consignment has been seized,” the court said.
It is made clear that the issue of waiver of demurrage charges will be governed by the applicable Rules and Regulations.
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