TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (10) TMI 863
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....country origin which are subsequently seized by them. The adjudicating authority confiscated the goods and imposed redemption fine of Rs. 4,50,000/- and also imposed penalty of Rs. 2,00,000/- each on Shri Abdul Nayeem, Prop: of M/s.Ganga Trading Co., and Shri Ganesh Mishra, Prop: of M/s.Salasar Transport Co., which was upheld by the Commissioner(Appeals). 2. Heard both sides and perused the appeal records. 3. The consignor of the goods is M/s.Ganga Trading Co., Prop: Shri Abdul Nayeem. The transporter of the goods is M/s.Salasar Transport Co., Prop: Shri Ganesh Mishra. I find from the impugned orders that the goods are covered under tax invoice No.67/12 dated 24.02.2013. The driver of the truck produced the transport challan having MF....
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.... (i) Kukil Das v. Commissioner of Customs, Patna [2004 (177) ELT 345 (Tri.-Kol)] (j) Commissioner of Customs, Patna v. Dwarika Prasad Agarwal [2012 (275) ELT 183 (Pat)] (k) CC(P), WB, Kolkata v. Sudhir Saha [2004 (172) ELT 26 (Cal.)] (l) Sonali Traders v. Commissioner of Customs, Allahabad [2013 (298) ELT 302 (Tri-Del)] (m) Krishna Das v. Commissioner of Customs, Lucknow [2014 (303) ELT 548 (Tri-Del)] 4. In a recent decision, in the case of Maqsood Alam v. Commissioner of Customs, Lucknow [2015 (324) E.L.T. 162 (Tri.-Del.)], the Tribunal in identical situation allowed the appeal. The relevant portion of the said decision is reproduced below:- "4. The core issue to be decided in the present ap....
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....llants contention that the goods were sold to NCCF in the month of March, 2008, which in turn were sold by the cooperative societies in the month of April, 2008 and were further sold by M/s. Bahubali Attractions Pvt. Ltd. in the month of May, 2008 and it is not legally valid to treat the opinions of the personnel of the cooperative societies/NCCF based on mere visual examination of the impugned goods after so many months as a sustainable legal evidence, more so because they sell betel-nuts to various customers and cannot be reasonably expected to remember whether the impugned goods were sold by them or not. In any case, an opinion based on visual examination of betel-nuts cannot be accorded a legal force to sustain the allegation of smuggli....
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....uggled goods. 5. Thus the opinions that the goods are of foreign origin based on visual examination are totally insufficient to quasi judicially arrive at a finding that the goods are of foreign origin. Further being of foreign origin in itself does not mean that the goods are smuggled for which positive evidence is to be produced by Customs authorities to establish the smuggled nature of goods. We find that the Customs has not even attempted to produce any such evidence in the present case. As regards the marking Triveni, Kolkata in transit to Nepal found on a few bags, in the case of CC (Preventive) v. Dugarmal Mohata (supra), the Calcutta High Court observed, No reliance can be placed regarding inscription Biratnagar, Nepal, Tra....