Actual user condition deleted for specified imports, making Customs detention and demurrage liability wrongful.

The Public Notice modifying the Import & Export Policy 1990-93 was construed as deleting the actual user conditions for the specified items in Appendix 6, List 8, Part I, so import of those goods was open to all importers and not confined to actual users. On that basis, Customs' insistence on an actual user status and a further licence for clearance was held to be incorrect, and the detention of the goods was treated as wrongful. Applying the principle that wrongful detention by Customs can make them responsible for demurrage, the authorities were directed to release the Bills of Entry promptly, issue Wharfage Rent Exemption Certificates, and reimburse demurrage if the port did not accept them.

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Issues: Whether the first Public Notice dispensing with the "Actual User condition" for items in Appendix 6, List 8, Part I of the Import and Export Policy entitled importers other than Actual Users to clear the goods under Open General Licence, and whether the Customs Authorities were justified in withholding clearance and charging demurrage.

Analysis: The Public Notice expressly stated that the Actual User condition stood dispensed with for the specified items and operated notwithstanding the existing policy provisions. The Court held that the concept of Actual User could not survive once the condition of actual use was deleted, and that the effect of the notice was to open import of the covered items to all classes of importers. The later public notice and the amendments made by it were treated as confirming that the first notice had already liberalised the import regime for those items. The Court also held that the Customs Authorities should not have detained the goods or required the importer to obtain clarification, and that the loss caused by detention, including demurrage, could not be left on the importer.

Conclusion: The importer was entitled to clearance of the goods on payment of customs duty as declared, without insistence on Actual User status or a further licence, and the Customs Authorities were made responsible for demurrage if the wharfage rent exemption certificate was not accepted.

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