2002 (10) TMI 637

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....pondent. [Order]. - Vide the impugned Order, the Commissioner of Customs (Prev.), Patna has confiscated 31 bags of betel nuts claimed to be belonging to the appellant. 2. As per the facts on record, the Patna Customs seized the 31 bags of betel nuts alleged to be of foreign origin from Farakka Express Train when the same reached Patna Junction. The adjudication order is also in respe....

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....in his name, he was the real owner of the goods covered under the said railway receipts as per the provisions of Section 74 of the Railway Act, 1989. He also deposed that he had collected the betel nuts in question from the local growers of Assam and had arranged the booking through the local man as a consignor and arranged for getting delivery of the same through a local man made as a consignee. ....

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.... RRs/PWBs. How can the agents be genuine when the actual official owners are non-existent/fictitious? I, therefore, hold the claims of ownership over the betel nuts by the appellants as untenable and liable to rejection." 4. The appellant has challenged the above finding of the adjudicating authority on the ground that as per the provisions of the Railway Law, the person who produces the r....

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.... the foreign origin of the betel nuts and their smuggled nature, the Revenue is duty-bound to return the goods to the Railways from whose possession it had seized the same and the Railways would decide about the delivery of the same in accordance with their laws. 5. From the impugned order, I find that the adjudicating authority has rejected the appellant's claim by doubting his ownership ....