Export misdeclaration and standards breach can attract confiscation and penalty despite a claimed bona fide belief.

Goods presented for export that do not conform to the declared description or applicable food standards are liable to confiscation and penalty under the Customs Act. The exporter in whose name the shipping bill stands remains responsible for ensuring that the goods offered for export match the declaration and statutory standards, and cannot avoid liability by blaming the supplier or by asserting bona fide belief and absence of mens rea. The cited penalty precedents were distinguished on different facts and statutory settings, and the challenge to the order failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the export consignment, found not to conform to the declared description and food standards, was liable to confiscation and penalty, and whether the exporter could avoid liability on the plea of bona fide belief and absence of mens rea.

Analysis: The goods sought to be exported were found on examination to consist largely of powdered stems and waste material and not to conform to the prescribed standards for tea. The exporter was the person in whose name the shipping bill stood and could not disown responsibility for the quality of goods exported on the ground that another party had supplied them. The plea of bona fide belief and lack of mens rea was held insufficient in the facts, because the exporter had the duty to ensure that goods offered for export conformed to the declared description and statutory standards. The cited precedents on penalty for bona fide conduct were distinguished as turning on different facts and different statutory contexts.

Conclusion: The exporter remained liable for confiscation and penalty under the Customs Act, and the challenge to the impugned order failed.

Final Conclusion: The decision affirms that an exporter cannot escape customs consequences for exporting goods not conforming to declared quality or statutory standards merely by asserting that the supplier acted fraudulently or that there was no guilty intent.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods presented for export do not conform to the declared description or applicable statutory standards, the exporter in whose name the shipment is made remains liable to confiscation and penalty, and a bare plea of bona fide belief or absence of mens rea does not by itself defeat such liability.

---