Laboratory-grade chemicals may be imported under Open General Licence despite restricted listings when policy separately recognises that category.

Laboratory chemicals were treated as a distinct import category under the Import Policy, so a substance appearing in a banned or restricted appendix was not automatically excluded when imported as laboratory-grade material. The decisive factors were purity, quality, packing, price and intended laboratory use, which distinguished laboratory chemical grade from commercial or industrial grade. Because the policy separately recognised laboratory chemicals, a broad reading that treated all listed chemicals as barred would make that category redundant. The chemicals were therefore importable under Open General Licence, and the confiscation orders were set aside.

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Issues: Whether chemicals otherwise appearing in the banned or restricted lists of the Import Policy could nonetheless be imported under Open General Licence when imported as laboratory chemicals of laboratory grade.

Analysis: The relevant policy treated laboratory chemicals as a distinct class. The decisive considerations were purity, quality, packing, price and intended laboratory use, which distinguished laboratory chemical grade from commercial or industrial grade of the same substance. The general presence of a chemical in an appendix did not by itself exclude importability as a laboratory chemical unless that laboratory grade was specifically covered. The broad reading adopted by the lower authority would make the separate policy reference to laboratory chemicals redundant, and the Tribunal found that the cited precedents on coconut oil and Piperazine did not govern a regime where laboratory chemicals were separately dealt with in the policy.

Conclusion: The chemicals in question were held importable as laboratory chemicals under Open General Licence despite their appearance in the banned or restricted appendices, and the confiscation orders were set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the import policy separately recognises laboratory chemicals as a distinct category, a chemical listed as banned or restricted in its ordinary form is not excluded from import as laboratory-grade material unless the policy specifically prohibits that laboratory grade.

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