2007 (10) TMI 25

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....500 from the said M/s. Nitu Enterprises of Nepal. It also appears that in the original Customs Transit Declaration which was filed by the Customs Clearing Agent the said Letters of Credit and the amount indicated therein had been duly indicated. Subsequently, however, what was sought to be imported was 10 times the amount of the value of the two Letters of Credit. The same having been discovered on inspection by the Customs authorities, the goods were seized as being fraudulently imported into India in contravention of the documents and statements made in the Customs Transit Declaration. 2.It appears further that an application was made on behalf of the respondent no. 1 for release of the goods so that the same could be re-exported to it....

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....rit petition. 6.At this juncture, it may not be out of place to mention that neither at that stage nor even now, that is, even after almost nine years, has any cause been shown to the said show cause notice which had been issued on 14th August 1998. 7.There is no dispute that except for the show cause notice, nothing further appears to have been done in the proceedings and no enquiry or adjudication has taken place therein. Without such enquiry and without any evidence apart from the documents available having been brought on record, the learned Single Judge of the Calcutta High Court, upon observing that there was no iota of evidence to the effect that the petitioner (respondent no. 1 herein) was in collusion with M/s. Nitu Enterpris....

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....ders, both of the learned Single Judge as also that of the Division Bench and remit the matter to the Customs authorities for enquiry and adjudication in terms of the show cause notice issued on 14th August 1998. Since about nine years have passed since the initial order of seizure as also confiscation was passed, we would request the said authorities to dispose of the matter at an early date. We extend the time for filing the reply to the show cause notice by a period of two months from date. The authorities should complete the enquiry and adjudication within four months thereafter. 12.We make it clear that we have not gone into the merits of the matter ourselves and we leave it to the authorities to adjudicate upon the matter on its me....