TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (8) TMI 340
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....ountry of origin, when the goods were only transshipped through Sri Lanka to claim ineligible duty benefits under ISFTA/SAFTA. Consequent to the investigation. Show Cause Notices (SCN) dated 05.05.2019, supplementary SCN dated 04.02.2020 and SCN dated 13.08.2020 were issued to the respondent to deny the duty exemption benefits based on the Country-of-Origin certificate. After following due process, the Principal Commissioner dropped the demand in both notices. The noticees were hence discharged from liability. Hence the department has filed the present appeal and has sought an out-of-turn hearing and stay of the order, by filing this Miscellaneous application. 3. The learned Authorized Representative, Shri Anoop Singh, appeared on behalf of the appellant department, while there was no representation for the respondent. However, the registry received an email dated 03.07.2025 from the legal heirs of the respondent, enclosing a letter and the death certificate of the late Hanif Thara, sole proprietor of the respondent company, recording his date of death as 21.06.2025, with a request for abatement of proceedings in accordance with the CESTAT Procedure Rules. The Ld. AR requested add....
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....lls of entry during the month of June & July 2025 at Chennai Sea Port, is proximate to the proprietors death on 21.06.2025. We find that questions of law and fact that are now sought to be raised by Ld. A.R., are outside the averments in the Memorandum of Appeal. Submissions made during the public hearing or in the written submissions cannot improve upon the allegations in the SCN, [See: COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI Vs TOYO ENGINEERING INDIA LIMITED [2006 (8) TMI 184 - Supreme Court / 2006 (201) E.L.T. 513 (SC)] or the Memorandum of Appeal. 7. A power of attorney is an instrument by which a person is authorised to act as an agent of the person granting it. As per the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in State Of Rajasthan & Ors vs Basant Nahata [AIR 2005 SUPREME COURT 3401, (2005) 7 SCALE 164], the power of attorney is a document of convenience. It is executed by the principal in favour of the agent. It held; POWER OF ATTORNEY : 13. A grant of power of attorney is essentially governed by Chapter X of the Indian Contract Act. By reason of a deed of power of attorney, an agent is formally appointed to act for the principal in one transaction or a series of transactions or....
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....ubject of course to the powers granted to him by reason thereof. Any act of infidelity or breach of trust is a matter between the donor and the donee. In this case however the donor i.e. Hanif Thara, sole proprietor of M/s Unik Traders himself, has been absolved of any wrongdoing. Hence reviving the case on the power of attorney (donee) after the donors death, will not be legal and proper, especially when there are no adjudged dues. 7.2 Further section 201 of The Indian Contract Act, 1872, states as under: 201. Termination of agency.- An agency is terminated by the principal revoking his authority, or by the agent renouncing the business of the agency; or by the business of the agency being completed; or by either the principal or agent dying or becoming of unsound mind; or by the principal being adjudicated an insolvent under the provisions of any Act for the time being in force for the relief of insolvent debtors. (emphasis added) Hence a general power of attorney, in the normal course, gets terminated by death of the principal even by application of law. 8. As per section 12 of the Customs Act 1962, the charge of customs duty is on the goods imported or exported. A bill o....
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....ter entrusts this responsibility of paying duty to somebody else, the liability in law rests with the importer or exporter. v) Revenue attempts to revive a charge against a dead person through the power of attorney holder, especially when there are no adjudged dues. In principle, what cannot be done directly, is not permissible to be done obliquely/ indirectly. vi) The power of attorney holder has not been made a respondent to the appeal and has not been called upon to answer on behalf of the proprietorship firm, even as per the departments own Appeal Memorandum. Liability of M/s Unik Traders after the death of its proprietor 11. As per rule 22 of the CUSTOMS, EXCISE AND SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL (PROCEDURE) RULES, 1982, where in any proceedings the appellant or applicant or a respondent dies among other things, the appeal or application shall abate. Revenue has however drawn attention to the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka's judgment in the case of New Sharada Industries (supra), to state that an appeal cannot be dismissed solely on account of the death of the sole proprietor and that the appeal must be decided on merits after bringing on record the legal representati....
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....ppropriate provisions for continuing an assessment and collecting tax from the estate of a deceased person which was found to be absent in the 1922 Act before it was amended by insertion of Section 24B. ***** ****** **** 17. It will be seen that the definition of "assessee" contained in Section 4(3)(a) of the Central Excises and Salt Act is similar to the definition of assessee contained in the Income Tax Act, 1922. Under that Act, as we have already seen, an assessee means "a person by whom income tax is payable." Under the Central Excises and Salt Act, an assessee means "the person who is liable to pay the duty of excise under this Act". The present tense being used, it is clear that the person referred to can only be a living person as was held in Ellis C. Reid (supra). Further, the only extension of the definition of "assessee" under the Central Excises and Salt Act is that it would also include an assessee's agent, which has nothing to do with the facts of the present case. It is well settled that a "means and includes" definition is exhaustive in nature and that there is no scope to read anything further into the said definition. 18. As has been correctly pointed out by ....
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....ntral Government under section 28B] is not paid,- . . . . . . " 5. Subs. by Act 22 of 1995, s. 66, for certain words (w.e.f. 26-5-1995). 6. Ins. by Act 10 of 2000, s. 88 (w.e.f. 12-5-2000) 12. Further the matter was examined by the Hon'ble Madras High Court in a Customs case of S. Hidayathullah @ Mannady Bharakath (Died) and Ors Vs The Commissioner of Customs, Airport Customs House, Chennai [2025 (5) TMI 590 - MADRAS HIGH COURT / 2025:MHC:1144], the Hon'ble Court referred to the judgment in the case of Shabina Abraham (supra) and held; 43. To put it alternatively, and as the Supreme Court has held in Shabina Abraham's case, the scheme of the Customs Act has consciously kept legal heirs away from the rigour of answering to liabilities under that Act. With this, the position stands settled that a demand under a fiscal statute, be it of tax, duty, interest or penalty, cannot be pursued by the concerned Revenue Department, except if the relevant Statute enables such pursuit. 44. The assessments in the present case have been framed as early as on 24.10.2002 when there was no enabling provision under the Customs Act stipulating that the demands under those orders could be enfo....