Customs House Agent licensing: earlier examination under the superseded regime can satisfy the later licence requirement.

A later customs licensing regulation that supersedes an earlier regime but saves prior acts can treat an examination already passed under the earlier scheme as satisfying the later examination condition, where no fresh examination is expressly required. The territorial source of the earlier examination is immaterial if the licence operates across Customs Stations in India. On that basis, a person who cleared the examination under the 1984 Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations is deemed to have met the Regulation 8 requirement under the 2004 Regulations, and rejection of the licence application solely for being examined in another Commissionerate is unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether a person who had passed the examination under Regulation 9 of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984 could be treated as having satisfied the examination requirement under Regulation 8 of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 2004 for grant of licence under the 2004 regime, irrespective of the Commissionerate from which the examination was cleared.

Analysis: Section 146 of the Customs Act, 1962 authorises licensing of Customs House Agents in accordance with regulations made under Section 146(2). The 1984 Regulations provided for a temporary licence followed by a regular licence on passing the prescribed examination, while the 2004 Regulations replaced that scheme and provided for grant of licence to an applicant who passed the examination under Regulation 8. The earlier decision of the Court, affirmed by the Supreme Court, had held that the examination under the 2004 Regulations included the examination already passed under the 1984 Regulations, and that the superseding regulations saved things done under the earlier regime. The territorial origin of the examination was held to be immaterial because the licence, once granted, enabled business across Customs Stations in India.

Conclusion: A person who passed the examination under Regulation 9 of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984 is deemed to have satisfied the examination requirement under Regulation 8 of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 2004, and the licence application could not be rejected merely because the examination was cleared from another Commissionerate.

Final Conclusion: The rejection orders were unsustainable and the licence application was required to be reconsidered and decided on the footing that the examination requirement stood satisfied under the 2004 Regulations.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a later licensing regulation supersedes an earlier one but saves prior acts and does not expressly require a fresh examination, successful completion of the earlier equivalent examination satisfies the later examination condition for grant of licence.

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