1983 (5) TMI 248

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....the gold bar imported by the Appellant on 13-5-1982. 3. It was submitted on behalf of the Appellant that he, having declared the gold bar, it cannot be held to have been "imported" in view of the case law, especially 1981 E.L.T. 153. It was argued that the import was not completed and, therefore, the goods are not liable to confiscation. It was also submitted that earlier the Govt. of India and the Appellate Collector had allowed re-export in similar circumstances. As no offence has been committed by the Appellant, the confiscation is not valid. 4. The Departmental Representative opposed the arguments. 5. We have considered the submissions made by both sides and examined the case law cited by the Appellant. 6.&ems....

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....three aforesaid cases "import" defined in Section 2(23) of the Act, read with the definition of "India" in Section 2(27) of the Act had been given, on the basis of the Supreme Court case in A.I.R. 1958 S.C. 341 (Empress Mills, Nagpur v. Municipal Committee, Wardha = 1958 S.C.R. 1102), a restricted meaning to mean incorporation and mixing with the mass of goods in the country after clearance through the Customs. Otherwise, it was apprehended, even goods in transit through India, say, on board a plane, would, notwithstanding that they were not actually unloaded, become exigible to duty merely on entry into the territory of India; (b) If we may say so with respect, in the Supreme Court case, their Lordships were concerned with the ordi....

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....ipality Act; (e) In Sections 77 and 80 of the Act as well, we find similar provisions exempting a passenger from payment of duty and the rigour of confiscation in terms of Section 111 of the Act, provided the conditions therein are fulfilled, notwithstanding that an "import" had occurred. 10. The conditions laid down in the aforesaid provisions are - (a) there must be a truthful declaration of the contents of baggage including those articles which are not merely dutiable but also those whose import is prohibited; and (b) there should be a request for detention for re-export. 11. In this case the Appellant, admittedly, went to the Customs and declared his goods and also paid duty on some of the items u....