Contemporaneous port records prevail over private survey reports in short-landing disputes, restoring the original customs adjudication.

In a short-landing dispute, the contemporaneous out-turn report issued by the port authorities was treated as a statutory record and given priority over a private survey report prepared without the customs authorities' participation. The private survey report could not displace the official port record, particularly where no other contemporaneous statutory evidence, such as tally sheets, was produced. On that basis, the original adjudicating authority's reliance on the out-turn report was upheld, the appellate order rejecting it was found unsustainable, and the order-in-original imposing penalty was restored.

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Issues: Whether, in a short-landing dispute, the official out-turn report issued by the port authorities was to be preferred over a private survey report, and whether the impugned appellate order discarding the out-turn report could be sustained.

Analysis: The out-turn report issued by the port authorities was treated as a statutory contemporaneous document. The private survey report, not being a statutory document and having been prepared without the association of the customs authorities, could not displace the official port record. In the absence of any other contemporaneous statutory documentary evidence such as tally sheets, the reliance placed by the original adjudicating authority on the out-turn report was held to be legally correct. The appellate authority's reliance on the survey report was therefore found unsustainable.

Conclusion: The out-turn report prevailed over the survey report, and the order-in-appeal was set aside while the order-in-original imposing penalty was restored.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the appellate order failed, and the original customs adjudication was reinstated on the basis of the official port records.

Ratio Decidendi: In a short-landing case, a contemporaneous statutory record issued by the port authorities prevails over a non-statutory survey report, unless displaced by equally reliable contemporaneous documentary evidence.

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