Belated Alteration of Consignee Details to Match IEC Not ‘Innocent Misuse’: Delhi HC Rejects Poppy Seed Importer’s Plea [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court recently directed absolute confiscation of goods and imposed penalties of a consignment whose consignee details were belatedly altered to reflect the Import Export Code (IEC) of the Petitioner herein.

The petitioner, Jyoti Enterprises challenged an Order-in-Original dated March 27, 2025, passed by the Customs Department, which ordered confiscation of a consignment on the ground of misdeclaration.

A specific alert was issued by the Respondent-Customs Department regarding five containers at ICD, Sonipat. The containers were initially consigned to M/s Raghurama Enterprises, however the consignee details were subsequently altered to reflect the Import Export Code of the Petitioner - Jyoti Enterprises.

Thereafter, on December 27, 2021, M/s HMM Co. Ltd., a shipping line informed the petitioner that it should arrange clearance for two containers covered under a specific Bill of Lading.

The Petitioner was apparently left clueless as it claimed to have no involvement in the transaction. On December 31, 2021, the petitioner filed a police complaint alleging that its Import Export Code had been used without authorization. It also stated that it had received repeated communications from a person identifying himself as ‘Mr. Tracy’, representing the exporter, M/s Meadows International Co., who requested a “no objection” for re-export of the good 

The petitioner further claimed that one Mr. Manish Jain had threatened it via FaceTime.

The Petitioner alerted both of these incidents to the Delhi Police and wrote to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) alleging misuse of its IEC, and lodged complaints against both Mr. Manish Jain and Mr. Tracy. Subsequently, the statement of the petitioner’s proprietor was recorded by the Station House Officer, Palam Police Station.

Upon opening the seized containers, the Customs reported that the goods comprised poppy seeds and areca nuts though they had been declared as ammonium sulphate. Meanwhile, the exporter Meadows International Co. had approached the Delhi High Court in W.P.(C) 5038/2022, wherein the Court issued directions for warehousing the goods, and later directed the Customs to expedite their investigation and pass a decision since the goods were perishable.

In the present matter, the Bench recorded that material facts revealed in the March 27, 2025 Order-in-Original had not been placed before the Court in the earlier Meadows proceedings.

The impugned order indicated that Meadows International Co. had appointed one Mr. Manish as an authorized representative who engaged an advocate to file the writ, while he himself lacked knowledge of the exported consignment.

The Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta noted that certain groups were operating to smuggle poppy seeds and areca nuts.

The Court observed that use of the petitioner’s IEC could not prima facie be accepted as merely an “innocent instance of misuse”; deeper probe had led to findings that the petitioner was complicit in the clandestine import of goods like poppy seeds and areca nuts through misdeclaring goods.

In view of these circumstances, the High Court held that it was not inclined to entertain the writ petition and disposed of the matter, relegating the petitioner to avail statutory remedy of appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) under Section 128 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Salil Arora and Reeva Chugh Arora appeared for the petitioner while Aakarsh Srivastava, and Anand Pandey appeared for the respondents.

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