TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1981 (2) TMI 91
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....e and Customs, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the Board) on June 1, July 19, and August 12, 1968 in appeal from certain orders of the Collectors of Customs at Calcutta and Bombay. Civil Appeal Nos. 1141-1143 of 1970 arise out of the Government of India's decision, dated February 25, 1970. Civil Appeal Nos. 1256-1258 of 1970 are from the Government of India's order, dated March 18, 1970 disposing of three revision cases which arose out of three appeals decided by the Board on November 11, 1968, February 13, and March 13, 1969 preferred against certain orders passed by the Collector of Customs, Bombay. In each of the cases giving rise to the appeals before us the Collector of Customs had made an order under Section 111(d) of the Act wh....
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....mission being granted by the Textile Commissioner. It was also agreed that the margin of profit would be paid in advance to the licensee mills and that the c.i.f. value would be directly paid by the purchasers to the concerned bank when documents were received from the foreign suppliers. It was further agreed that other charges such as import duty, clearing charges and other incidental charges including demurrage would be paid by the purchasers to the parties concerned. It was stipulated that the letters of credit would be opened by the purchasers through their bankers. The licensee mills were not to be held responsible for any delay in the transmission or presentation of shipping documents nor for any demurrage or damage to the material. D....
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....andas thereafter placed indents for synthetic yarn in the name of the licensee mills and in the applications for letters of credit the goods were described by them as synthetic yarn. On presentation of these applications letters of credit were opened by the Bank of Tokyo Ltd. in the name of the licensee mills for the import of synthetic yarn. On arrival of the consignments of synthetic yarn Madhusudan Gordhandas instructed their clearing agents to present bills of entry in the goods. For some consignments, it appears, the bills of entry were filed in the name of Bank of Tokyo Ltd. The documents including the bills of lading which were in the name of the licensee mills were received by the Bank of Tokyo, but before they could be returned on ....
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....bserved that even if the licensee mills had agreed to the sale of all the four varieties, it was clear from the evidence that the licences were actually transferred by the licensee mills to Madhusudan Gordhandas who dealt with them in the manner they liked. The Board held that having obtained the margin of profit on their licenses, the licensee mills had lost all interest either in the licences or in the goods to be imported against their licences, that it was only because the licensee mills had relinquished control on the licences that Madhusudan Gordhandas could get the licences amended without consulting them. The Board also had no doubt that Madhusudan Gordhandas were the real importers and owners of the goods. The Government of India i....
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....attention was drawn to a judgment of this Court in Raj Kapoor v. Laxman, (1980) 2 SCR 512; decided on December 14, 1979. Reliance was placed on the following observations in that judgment : "Jurisprudentially viewed, an act may be an offence, definitionally speaking but a forbidden act may not spell inevitable guilt if the law itself declares that in certain special circumstances it is not to be regarded as an offence. The chapter on General Exceptions operates in this province. Section 79 makes an offence a non-offence. When ? Only when the offending act is actually justified by law or is bonafide believed by mistake of fact to be so justified. If, as here, the Board of Censors, acting within their jurisdiction and on an application mad....
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....accused. 6. It was further submitted before us on behalf of the appellants that they had been discriminated against in the matter of punishment awarded for the offence which would appear from the fact that the licensee mills who were equally guilty were let off with a much lighter penalty. On the material produced before us it seems there may be some basis for the grievance made. Of course the fine to be imposed in lieu of confiscation is in the discretion of the customs authorities, but it would be unfair if the punishments awarded respectively to the appellants and the licensee mills were glaringly disproportionate when, as would appear from the facts summarised above, both were guilty of trafficking in licence. Accordingly, while affi....