The Madras High Court quashed the levy of penalty under Section 112(a) or 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962 as Show Cause Notice was not issued by the proper officer.
The petitioner, Quantum Coal Energy (P) Ltd. is an importer of coal. According to the petitioners, they imported steam coal during the period from March 2012 to November 2012.
The Government had announced concessions and exemptions for import of steam coal. The petitioners’ classification of the imported goods as steam coal was accepted by the Customs authority and the goods were allowed to be cleared. While so, the Additional Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence issued show cause notice under Section 28 of the Customs Act calling upon the petitioner to show cause as to why action should not be taken for misrepresentation of Bituminous coal as steam coal.
The petitioner has pleaded before the court to quash the Order-in-Original relating to levy of penalty of Rs.1,00,000 under Section 112(a) or 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962.
The single judge bench of Justice G.R.Swaminathan noted that the show cause notice was issued by the Additional Director General of DRI who was not the proper officer to exercise the power under Section 28(4) and the initiation of the recovery proceedings in the present case is without any jurisdiction and liable to be set aside.
The court while allowing the petition said since the entire proceedings were initiated by an authority who lacked the jurisdiction the order impugned in these writ petitions is quashed.
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