Reasonable diligence and prior notice of import policy change can defeat confiscation where licence status changed before arrival.

Confiscation of imported camera parts was held unwarranted where a policy change moved the goods out of Open General Licence before arrival, but the importer had opened the letter of credit earlier and could not, despite due diligence, reasonably have known of the notification at that time. The Tribunal treated the gazetted amendment as not sufficiently ascertainable to the importer on the relevant date and therefore rejected confiscation and redemption fine on that basis, with consequential relief following.

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Issues: Whether confiscation of imported camera parts was justified when the import policy change brought the goods out of Open General Licence before their arrival, but the notification was not reasonably known to the importer at the time of opening the letter of credit.

Analysis: The importer's letter of credit had been opened before the policy change. The notification extending the definition of consumer durables to include accessories and spare parts had been published in the Gazette, but the material placed before the Tribunal indicated that the Gazette was made available for sale only later, and the notification was not found in the newspapers searched by the importer. On that material, the importer could not, by reasonable diligence, have known of the change when the letter of credit was opened.

Conclusion: The confiscation was not justified and the goods could not be subjected to redemption fine on that basis.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the order of confiscation was set aside with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an import policy change has been formally notified but was not reasonably ascertainable by the importer at the relevant time despite due diligence, confiscation for want of licence is not warranted.

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