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TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (10) TMI 1224
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....sed of by way of this common order. 2. Heard Mr. G. Vidhyadhar Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner in both the writ petitions; Mr. Gadi Praveen Kumar, learned Dy. Solicitor General of India, for the 1st respondent; and Mr. Dominic Fernandes, learned Senior Standing Counsel for Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, for respondent Nos. 2 to 6. 3. For convenience, the facts in Writ Petition No. 20748 of 2023 are discussed herein. 4. Aggrieved by the issuance of show-cause notice dated 26.05.2023 under Section 28(4) of the Customs Act, 1962, the instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner. 5. The facts in brief leading to the filing of present writ petition are that the petitioner is said to have imported few consign....
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....sequently, a pre-notice consultation was convened between the parties. It was contended by the respondent-Department that from the documents available on record, it appears that the product imported was broken cashew nuts and have been wrongly classified under the Customs Tariff Sub-Heading 23080000 whereas it ought to have been under CTH 08013210. This product under the CTH 08013210 would have attracted BCD @ 30%, SWS @ 10% and IGST @ 5%. 9. It is said that petitioner has submitted his response to the pre-notice consultation. However, dissatisfied with the same, the authorities have now issued the impugned show-cause notice dated 26.05.2023 under Section 28(4) of the Customs Act, 1962. It is this show-cause notice which is under challenge....
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....ected to great inconvenience when the 4th respondent had not granted clearance of the goods when it reached the Indian port, and now the petitioner being subjected to the impugned show-cause notice proceedings would further put the petitioner to more inconvenience and harassment. 12. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent-Department raised the issue of maintainability of the writ petition itself particularly at the show-cause stage. Learned counsel for the respondent-Department took us through various contents of the impugned show-cause notice highlighting the nature of illegality, irregularity and the mischief played by the petitioner in evading payments of customs duty. It was the further contention of the learned counsel for the....
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....itted that the petitioners in fact did not have sufficient invoices to show that it has been sold to agencies only dealing with animal feeds, rather petty cash sales have been shown that too of small quantities that too made to individuals on cash sales. With all this, learned counsel for the respondent-Department, emphasized on the allegation that the petitioner, instead of selling the product as an animal feed, had literally sold the products in open market for human consumption which by itself is a serious offence and misconduct on the part of petitioner and, thus, prayed for dismissal of the writ petition. 14. Having heard the contentions on either side and on perusal of the record, though the learned counsel for the petitioner has ref....
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....f the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in Malladi Drugs and Pharma Limited vs. Union of India (2020) 12 S.C.C. 808, wherein the Hon'ble Apex Court held at para Nos. 2 and 3 as under : "2. The High Court, has, by the impugned judgment held that the appellant should first raise all the objections before the authority who have issued the show-cause notice and in case any adverse order is passed against the appellant, then liberty has been granted to approach the High Court. 3. The High Court's order was passed way back in 1997. Neither party knows whether the Department has proceeded further and / or whether any order has been passed pursuant to the show-cause notice. Even otherwise, in our view, the High Court was absolutely right in d....