Import policy interpretation: goods in different appendix entries cannot be clubbed merely because they share the same description.

Para 80(1) limited stock and sale licence imports to a single item of spares and adopted the meaning of "single item" from para 31(2), but that phrase could not be extended across different appendix entries. Ball bearings listed in separate appendices were treated as distinct entries, even though they shared the same general description, because the value ceiling operated by reference to the same entry, sub-entry, or group of items under the same entry. On that construction, the goods remained covered by the licence and the confiscation and penalty were not sustainable.

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Issues: Whether ball bearings imported under different entries in separate appendices of the Import Policy could be clubbed together as a single item for applying the monetary ceiling under para 80(1) read with para 31(2), and whether the consequent confiscation and penalty were sustainable.

Analysis: Para 80(1) subjected stock and sale licences to a ceiling on import of a single item of spares listed in Appendices 3, 4 and 30, and expressly adopted the meaning of single item in para 31(2). The first part of para 31(2) treated goods usable in various sizes and specifications, such as ball and roller bearings, as one item, but the later clauses showed that the value limit operated with reference to a single entry, a sub-classified sub-entry, or a group of items of the same nature under the same entry or sub-entry. Reading the clauses together, the expression single item could not be stretched to cover entries located in different appendices. Ball bearings under Sl. No. 434 of Appendix 3 were therefore separate from ball bearings under Sl. No. 86 of Appendix 4, and the authorities below erred in clubbing them merely because both were ball bearings. The earlier customs practice of clearing such goods separately also supported this construction.

Conclusion: The clubbing of the two appendix entries was in law, the goods were covered by the licence, and the confiscation and penalty could not stand. The appeal was allowed in favour of the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an import policy adopts the meaning of single item with reference to the same entry or sub-entry, goods falling under different appendix entries cannot be clubbed merely because they are of the same general description.

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