Detention certificate relief applies when customs delay stems from late electronic uploading of a mandatory departmental clearance.

An importer of bamboo sticks was entitled to a detention certificate where customs clearance was delayed because the mandatory No Objection Certificate had been issued by the plant quarantine authorities but was uploaded late into the electronic customs system, with no fault attributable to the importer. The Madras HC treated the earlier CBEC detention-certificate instruction as continuing to apply in substance to online bill of entry processing, to be read mutatis mutandis in the paperless regime under the electronic bill of entry regulations. Delay caused by system-related uploading issues could not be used to deny relief when the importer had no control over the departmental transmission lag.

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Issues: Whether the importer was entitled to a detention certificate where clearance of the imported goods was delayed because the No Objection Certificate issued by the concerned department was not uploaded in the Customs electronic system on time, and whether the old CBEC instruction on detention certificates continued to apply to online bill of entry processing.

Analysis: The import of bamboo sticks required production of a No Objection Certificate under the Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) Order, 2003. The filing and assessment of the bill of entry had moved to an electronic and paperless regime under the Bill of Entry (Electronic Integrated Declaration) Regulations, 2011 and later the Bill of Entry (Electronic Integrated Declaration and Paperless Processing) Regulations, 2018. The circular governing the online message exchange system showed that the concerned department was to transmit its release order electronically and that Customs processing would proceed on receipt of the online response. The record showed that the No Objection Certificate had been issued by the plant quarantine authorities but was uploaded only later, and the importer had no control over the delay. The 1976 CBEC instruction regarding detention certificates, though framed in the context of manual processing, remained applicable in substance and had to be read mutatis mutandis in the electronic system.

Conclusion: The importer was entitled to a detention certificate because the delay was attributable to the electronic uploading issue and not to any fault of the importer.

Final Conclusion: The impugned rejection of the detention certificate request could not be sustained, and relief was granted to the importer.

Ratio Decidendi: An importer cannot be denied a detention certificate when delay in customs clearance occurs due to technical or system-related failure in uploading mandatory departmental clearance in the electronic processing system, and the delay is not attributable to the importer.

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