Scope of employment under Customs House Agents rules limits liability for employees' unauthorised clandestine acts.

Regulation 20(7) of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984 was held to make a customs house agent answerable only for acts and omissions of employees committed in the course of their employment. Where employees acted clandestinely on their own, without the proprietor's knowledge or consent and for personal gain in an attempted export, their conduct was outside the scope of employment. The agent could not be fixed with responsibility for such unauthorised personal or criminal acts, and the charge under Regulation 20(7) failed; licence cancellation was therefore not justified.

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Issues: Whether the customs house agent was liable under Regulation 20(7) of the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984 for the acts of its employees in relation to the attempted export, when those acts were done without the proprietor's knowledge or consent and outside the course of employment.

Analysis: Regulation 20(7) makes the agent responsible for the acts and omissions of employees in regard to their employment. The provision was held to apply only to conduct undertaken in the course of employment as employees of the agent. On the facts, the employees acted on their own, without authorization, without the proprietor's knowledge, and for their personal gain in a clandestine export operation. Such conduct could not be treated as acts done in the course of employment, and the agent could not be fixed with responsibility for criminal or personal acts committed by employees outside their official work.

Conclusion: The charge under Regulation 20(7) was not established and the licence cancellation was not justified.

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