2010 (5) TMI 409

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.... provisional release subject to payment of differential duty of Rs. 12,21,515/- and execution of a bank guarantee of 50 per cent of the differential duty and bond for the ascertained full value of the seized goods. 2. According to the petitioners, the petitioners have been importing old, used and rejected machines as scrap from the United States of America. The goods were assessed to duty. The petitioners made payment of goods. Thereafter, goods were allowed to be cleared. 3. However, on 20th September, 2008, officials of the Directorate of Revenue - Intelligence, conducted search at the factory premises of the petitioners and found seventeen old machines lying intact at the factory premises. 4. The said machines were, according to....

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....ondition for provisional release, is apparent from the language of Section 110A. 8. Mr. Hazra cited Assistant Collector of Central Excise, Chandan Nagar, West Bengal v. Dunlop India Ltd. & Ors. reported in 1985 (19) E.L.T. 22 (S.C.) = AIR 1985 Supreme Court 330, where Supreme Court deprecated the practice of granting interim orders, which practically gave the principal relief sought in the petition, for the simple reason that a prima facie case might have been made out, without being concerned about the balance of convenience, the public interest and other relevant considerations. The Supreme Court observed that a levy or impost did not become bad, just because a writ petition was instituted in order to assail the validity of the levy. T....

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....he petitioner may be directed to furnish an unconditional bank guarantee payable on demand. 13. The petitioner might be directed to renew the bank guarantee sufficiently in advance upon notice to the respondents, failing which the bank guarantee might be encashed. It may be made clear that the bank guarantee would have to be unconditional bank guarantee. 14. From the order impugned, it is patently clear that the Assistant Commissioner of Customs has proceeded to allow provisional release subject to payment of differential duty, which is not a condition for release under Section 110A. 15. The impugned order is set aside. The Assistant Commissioner of Customs is directed to take a fresh decision on the application of the petitioners ....