2002 (2) TMI 1164

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.... docks and issued certificates showing 878.050 tons cleared under bill of entry 130, dated 16-1-1991, and 184.065 tons cleared under bill of entry 136, dated 1-2-1991. The importer filed a claim for refund of a little over Rs. 3.00 lakhs on the ground that it had not received 154.065 tons scrap on which it had paid duty. It relied upon the certificates issued by the officers in support. Notice was issued proposing to reject the refund claim on the ground that it was not supported by short landing certificate issued by port authorities. The Assistant Collector passed orders rejecting the claim. He noted that the importer had failed to produce a short landing certificate of the custodian of the cargo showing short landing of this scrap. The c....

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....al of the goods. Doubtless the certificates may have been qualified by the remarks that they were intended only for purpose of showing how much scrap was received in the appellant's factory for the purposes of Notification 83/90. The fact however remains that the consignments were weighed by the customs officers before they were cleared out of the docks. Whatever the purpose for which the certificates were issued, they provided evidence of the quantity of scrap actually received by the appellant and cleared from the docks. It has therefore to be accepted that the difference between the quantities manifested as having been imported by this appellant and the quantities that it had actually received had not been delivered to it. 4. We ....

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....not receive the full manifested quantity is also established. It is however not possible to conclude that the shortage (again assuming it to be existing) did not be arisen as a result of pilferage of the scrap after it was unloaded and before it was cleared. 6. It is in this context that reliance is placed upon Sonal Vyapar Ltd. v. CC. In that decision, the learned single member has taken the view that the expression "lost" occurring in sub-section (1) of Section 23 of the Act, "has to be construed to be comprehensive so as to embrace the situation of this kind for the purpose of doing justice in a situation where the importer has not admittedly received the full quantity of the goods for which he had paid the duty. Such an interpre....