https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=786527 A statement recorded under section 108 of the Customs Act cannot be relied on in adjudication unless the statutory safeguard in section 138B is followed. Where the maker is available, the authority must examine the person as a witness, record reasons for admitting the statement in evidence, and then permit cross-examination before using it against the affected person. Treating section 9D of the Central Excise Act as a parallel safeguard, the text notes that reliance on an untested statement without this procedure and unsupported inferences from surrounding material rendered the penalty under section 112(a)(i) unsustainable. en-us Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:15:59 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=786527 A statement recorded under section 108 of the Customs Act cannot be relied on in adjudication unless the statutory safeguard in section 138B is followed. Where the maker is available, the authority must examine the person as a witness, record reasons for admitting the statement in evidence, and then permit cross-examination before using it against the affected person. Treating section 9D of the Central Excise Act as a parallel safeguard, the text notes that reliance on an untested statement without this procedure and unsupported inferences from surrounding material rendered the penalty under section 112(a)(i) unsustainable. Case-Laws Customs Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=786527