Customs House Agent licence revocation requires serious proved misconduct; mixed findings and prior penalty made it disproportionate.

Revocation of a Customs House Agent licence was held unjustified where the inquiry findings were mixed and did not establish connivance with certainty. The Tribunal emphasised that revocation is a grave and disproportionate sanction because it affects the right to carry on trade or profession, and it should be reserved for sufficiently serious proved infractions. As earlier penalty proceedings had already resulted in punishment, the extreme measure of revocation was not warranted on the facts found. The impugned revocation order was therefore set aside and only the punishment already suffered was allowed to stand.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the revocation of the Customs House Agent licence was justified on the facts found in the inquiry reports and the connected penalty proceedings.

Issue (i): Whether the revocation of the Customs House Agent licence was justified on the facts found in the inquiry reports and the connected penalty proceedings.

Analysis: The inquiry officer in the first notice had exonerated the appellants on the charge relating to the employee's altered identity card, while in the second notice the inquiry officer found that the appellants had given business to the unauthorised agency but could not state with certainty that they had connived in the false declarations. The Tribunal also noted that the earlier penalty proceedings had already resulted in a penalty against the appellants, and that revocation is a grave measure affecting the right to carry on trade or profession and must be proportionate to the seriousness of the infraction. In the facts found, the charges did not justify the extreme sanction of revocation.

Conclusion: The revocation of the licence was not justified and the appeal succeeds.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order revoking the licence was set aside, and the appellants were left to bear only the punishment already suffered.

Ratio Decidendi: Revocation of a customs broker or CHA licence, being a disproportionately grave measure affecting livelihood, is warranted only where the proved infraction is sufficiently serious to justify that extreme sanction; where the findings are mixed and lesser punishment has already been suffered, revocation should not be imposed.

---