Restricted import conditions for second-hand photocopiers require compliance with licensing rules; free import cannot be assumed.

Used and old photocopiers imported as second-hand capital goods were treated as falling within a restricted import category under the Foreign Trade Policy and the Handbook of Procedures. Read together, the policy framework was applied to require compliance with the specific licensing conditions for such goods, rather than treating them as freely importable. On that construction, free import could not be assumed where the governing regime imposed import restrictions, and the Customs challenge succeeded because the requisite licence had not been obtained.

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Issues: Whether used and old photocopiers imported by the respondent were freely importable or required a specific licence under the Foreign Trade Policy and the Handbook of Procedures.

Analysis: The imported goods were second hand photocopiers falling within the restricted category. The governing policy framework was read as a whole, and the relevant procedural provision was held to clarify the treatment of second hand capital goods. On that construction, the restriction applicable to specifically identified items did not justify treating the respondent's goods as freely importable without compliance with the licensing requirement.

Conclusion: The import was not permissible without the requisite licence, and the challenge by the Customs authorities succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Foreign Trade Policy and the Handbook of Procedures prescribe import conditions for restricted second hand capital goods, those conditions must be complied with according to the governing policy regime, and free import cannot be assumed in the absence of such compliance.

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