Customs confiscation of gun-shaped cigarette lighters fails where goods are freely importable and not proven prohibited replicas.

Gun-shaped metal cigarette lighters, where freely importable under the relevant import policy, cannot be treated as prohibited goods merely because they resemble weapons. Section 111(d) of the Customs Act applies only to imports prohibited by law in force, and Section 111(m) requires a mismatch with declared particulars or value; neither basis was made out here. The supposed reliance on a non-existent "Weapons Act, 1990" and on the Arms Rules definition of firearm replica was insufficient because the goods remained functional lighters and were not shown to be indistinguishable from real firearms. Confiscation and penalty were therefore not sustainable.

---

---

Issues: Whether confiscation of gun-shaped metal cigarette lighters and the penalty imposed on the importer were sustainable on the footing that the goods were prohibited as a replica of weapons or otherwise liable to confiscation under the Customs Act, 1962.

Analysis: Liability under Section 111(d) of the Customs Act, 1962 arises only where import is prohibited by law in force, while Section 111(m) applies where the goods do not correspond with the declared value or particulars. The imported goods were cigarette lighters, and the applicable import policy for lighters showed them as freely importable at the relevant time. The basis adopted below, namely a supposed definition of replica of weapon under a non-existent "Weapons Act, 1990", was unsupported in Indian law. The definition of firearm replica in Rule 2(26) of the Arms Rules, 2016 did not justify treating ordinary gun-shaped lighters as firearms replicas, since the goods continued to function as lighters and were not shown to be indistinguishable from real firearms for practical purposes. The reasoning below, therefore, could not sustain either confiscation or penalty.

Conclusion: The confiscation and penalty were not sustainable and the appeal succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Goods that are merely gun-shaped lighters, and not legally established firearm replicas or prohibited imports, cannot be confiscated under Section 111(d) or Section 111(m) of the Customs Act, 1962.

---