2021 (2) TMI 369

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....nal Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Kolkata Zonal Unit, Kolkata, exercising powers under Section 110 read with Section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962. 3. Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioners submits that the impugned notice suffers from breach of principles of natural justice. He relies upon two Supreme Court decisions, namely, AIR 1972 Supreme Court 689 = 1983 (13) E.L.T. 1477 (S.C.) [The Assistant Collector of Customs and Superintendent, Preventive Service Customs, Calcutta & Ors. v. Charan Das Malhotra] and AIR 1989 Supreme Court 1884 = 1989 (42) E.L.T. 338 (S.C.) [I.J. Rao, Assistant Collector of Customs & Ors. v. Bibhuti Bhushan Bagh & Anr.] in support of the contention that the power under the fi....

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....e on behalf of the respondent Nos. 2 and 3. 6. The customs authorities on receipt of specific intelligence from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Kolkata Zonal Unit, that the writ petitioners were attempting exports of very inferior quality tobacco products by highly inflating their value with an intent to illegally claim IGST and Tobacco Cess, etc. initiated an investigation. The customs authorities seized the alleged offending goods. In the process of investigation, the impugned order dated June 24, 2020 was passed by the respondent No. 2. The order is an exercise of powers under Section 110(2) of the Act of 1962. 7. The provision of Section 110(2) of the Act of 1962 was considered by the Supreme Court in Charan Das....

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....e period so specified :" 12. An adjudicating authority is required to adhere to the principles of natural justice in any adjudicating proceedings, unless permitted by the statute not to do so. Provisions of Section 110(2) of the Act of 1962, prior to the amendment of the first proviso were interpreted by the Supreme Court in Charan Das Malhotra (supra) to mean that the authorities were exercising quasi-judicial powers. Therefore, essentially the authorities were required to adhere to the principles of natural justice while exercising powers under Section 110(2) of the Act of 1962. The amendment introduced to the first proviso incorporates two additional burdens on the authorities. One of such additional burden is that the authoritie....