Baggage rules and Tribunal jurisdiction: jewellery worn on the person can fall within baggage under the Customs framework.

Where the applicable Baggage Rules expressly extend the baggage regime to articles carried on the person, jewellery worn by a passenger may be treated as baggage and the dispute falls within the statutory bar on Tribunal jurisdiction under the proviso to Section 129A(1) of the Customs Act, 1962. Applying the 2016 Rules and their legal fiction, the Court distinguished the earlier regime and concluded that the appeal concerned baggage. The Tribunal therefore lacked jurisdiction, its order was set aside, and the statutory revision remedy was left open.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain the appeal concerning goods imported as baggage, and whether jewellery worn on the person of a passenger could be treated as baggage for that purpose.

Analysis: The statutory bar under the proviso to Section 129A(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 excludes Tribunal jurisdiction in respect of appeals relating to goods imported or exported as baggage. The definition of baggage under the Customs Act, 1962 and the Baggage Rules was examined, together with the text of Rule 3 of the Baggage Rules, 2016 and the earlier Baggage Rules, 1998. The Court noted that the 2016 Rules expressly extend the baggage regime to articles carried on the person, unlike the earlier regime, and that such an extension operates as a legal fiction which must be given full effect. On that basis, the Court held that jewellery worn on the person could fall within baggage under the applicable rules, and therefore the dispute related to baggage.

Conclusion: The Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to decide the appeal, and the order passed by the Tribunal was set aside. The available statutory remedy by way of revision was left open.

Final Conclusion: The common appeal succeeded on the jurisdictional question, and the connected writ petition became infructuous.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the applicable baggage rules expressly extend the baggage regime to articles carried on the person, the matter falls within the statutory exclusion from Tribunal jurisdiction under the proviso to Section 129A(1) of the Customs Act, 1962.

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