Customs House Agent licence renewal cannot be curtailed below the notified five-year term without legal basis.

Where a Customs House Agent licence is governed by a notification prescribing five-year validity, the authority cannot shorten that period by refusing renewal on performance grounds without legal basis. The text states that a licence renewed up to 31-12-1994 should have remained valid up to 31-12-1999 under the governing notification, and that the denial of renewal beyond the shorter period was unsustainable. The stated consequence was that renewal was due up to 31-12-1999 and the contrary order was set aside to that extent.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Customs House Agent licence was entitled to renewal for a period of five years and, consequently, whether the refusal to extend the licence beyond the shorter period was sustainable.

Analysis: The licence had been renewed up to 31-12-1994, and the governing notification authorised issue and renewal of the licence for a period of five years. On that basis, the licence ought to have been treated as valid up to 31-12-1999. The denial of renewal on the ground of performance, in the face of the five-year validity contemplated by the notification, was therefore not justified.

Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to renewal of the licence up to 31-12-1999, and the impugned order was set aside to that extent.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the governing notification prescribes a five-year validity for a licence or its renewal, the authority cannot curtail that statutory/notification-based period by imposing a shorter validity on performance grounds without legal basis.

---