CESTAT allowed the appeal and set aside penalty proceedings...

CESTAT allowed the appeal and set aside penalty proceedings under s.158 Customs Act arising from alleged contravention of r.6(3), Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty) Rules, 2017, where quarterly returns were submitted late and lacked certain particulars. Applying established principles that penal consequences require deliberate, dishonest or conscious disregard of statutory duty, the Tribunal found the lapse to be bona fide and merely procedural rather than constituting culpable breach warranting penalty. Consequently, the show-cause notice's demand for penalty was quashed and penal proceedings dropped; no further penal action shall be sustained against the Appellant on the facts established in this case.

---