2023 (9) TMI 194

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.... penalty of Rs. 4,00,000 and Rs. 5,00,000 respectively imposed under section 112 of Customs Act, 1962 in order [order-in-original No: 128/2005/CAC/C(I)/AKP dated 30th November 2005] of Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai-I which, while confiscating the goods under section 111(o) of Customs Act, 1962, had invoked section 28 of Customs Act, 1962 for recovery of duty foregone by recourse to notification no. 84/97-Cus dated 11th November 1997 on imports effected, vide bills of entry no. 480059/22.07.2004 and no. 931881/26.07.2004 filed by M/s Uhde India Ltd, for execution of project of M/s Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. The principal plea of the appellants is that the Tribunal had, in appeal of both M/s Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertil....

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....l of the order of the Tribunal, we note that, while granting relief, the confiscation had been upheld and hence recourse to section 112 of Customs Act, 1962 is within the law; nonetheless, considering the facts and circumstances, the redemption fine under section 125 of Customs Act, 1962 was reduced to 'zero' and penalties set aside. However, as far as the present appellants are concerned, it was held that '4.44 Certain officers of Appellant 1 and Appellant 2 and the officers of Department of Economic Affairs have been charged for getting forged signatures on the Project Implementation Authority Certificate. Our order in respect of the Appellant 1 and Appellant 2, should not be treated as giving relief to them in their appeals, whi....

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....that '56. If there is a company/firm responsible for any offence there is always a human face behind the corporate veil who is equally responsible- In this case the two human faces of M/s ICICI Bank are Mr Anand T Kusre, Gen Manager-in-charge Technology Group and Mr Zarasp Irani, Manager. Shri Anand T Kusre was the person who forwarded the two certificates signed by their Executive Director, to the MOF under the cover of his letter dated 11.6.2004. This letter dated 11.6.2004 is one of the relied upon documents in the instant SCN. Instead of sending these letters directly to the MOF through post/courier he chose to forward it through a representative of RCF. He was aware that the Under Secretary(ADB), MOF, had informed him vide let....

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....r para 10.2 above) he admitted that the Line Ministry was that nominated by the MOF for each Project and that for the instant project no such nomination had been made by the MOF at as per his knowledge. Shri Irani is, therefore, clearly responsible for his acts of commission and omission which have rendered the imported goods liable for confiscation making him liable for penal action u/s 112(a) of the Customs Act 1962.' 6. It appears that the factual matrix therein is inextricably enmeshed with the 'project implementation authority certificate' and the relevance of that certificate to legal consequence of its validity has been decided by the Tribunal in the appeals of M/s Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd and M/s ICICI Bank Ltd supra....