Refund on postal parcel assessments may itself challenge the levy where the addressee had no real chance to contest exemption denial.

Duty assessed on postal parcels without giving the addressee a real opportunity to contest the assessment was treated differently from a regular Bill of Entry assessment. Because the addressee could not meaningfully participate in, or know the basis of, the denial of exemption, the refund application itself was regarded as a sufficient challenge to the assessment and a request for reassessment. On those facts, the prior-challenge principle was held not to apply mechanically to postal parcel assessments, and the objection that refund was barred for want of an earlier challenge was rejected.

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Issues: Whether the refund claim was barred for want of a prior challenge to the assessment and whether the principle requiring challenge to the assessment before refund applied to duty levied on postal parcels.

Analysis: The assessment on the postal parcels was made through the postal process, and the addressee had no meaningful opportunity to participate in the assessment or to know the particulars of the assessment, including the basis for denying exemption. The postal receipt could not be treated as an appealable assessment order in the same manner as a regular Bill of Entry assessment. In these circumstances, the refund application itself operated as a challenge to the assessment and a request for reassessment by extending the benefit of the exemption notification. The prior-challenge principle was therefore not attracted on these facts.

Conclusion: The refund claim was maintainable and the objection based on non-challenge to the original assessment failed.

Final Conclusion: The departmental appeal was rejected, and the order allowing refund relief to the assessee was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty is assessed on postal parcels without affording the addressee a real opportunity to contest the assessment, a refund claim may itself constitute a sufficient challenge to the assessment, and the bar against refund without prior challenge does not apply mechanically.

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