TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 405
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....ned orders. Customs Appeal No's. 50093, 50092, 50225 and 50847 of 2025 were heard on 18.11.2025. Customs Appeal No's. 52306 of 2024 and 50868 of 2025 were heard on 19.11.2025 and orders were reserved. 2. M/s. Marble City India Ltd [Marble city] and its Director Shri Saket Dalmia [Dalmia], M/s Vimal Forwarders Pvt. Ltd., M/s Shirdi Sai Shipping Services, M/s Professional Impex Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Maas Infra and Logistics Ltd. filed these six appeals to assail the orders dated 30.9.2024 and 08.10.2024 [impugned orders] passed by the Principal Commissioner deciding the proposals made in the show cause notice dated 17.1.2014 [SCN] issued by the Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence [DRI] to assail the penalties imposed on them. 3. Marble City was formed by amalgamation of two companies M/s. P G Industries Ltd [PG] and M/s. Priceless Overseas Limited [Priceless] to whom the SCN was issued. During the period (December 2003 to April 2008), both PG and Priceless were in the business of importing, processing, stocking and selling rough marble blocks/slabs and Shri Dalmia was their Director. During the relevant period, import of rough marble blocks was restricted under the Foreign ....
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.... 7. While the Bills of Entry are filed online on the Indian Customs Electronic Data Interface System [ICES], the adjudication process starting from issuing the SCN (oral or written), through examining the reply, holding personal hearing and finally passing the order are all done offline, i.e., physically. If the matter is adjudicated, the goods are confiscated and released on payment of redemption fine, the 'out of charge' officer will clear the goods for home consumption after ascertaining that the redemption fine, duty, penalty, etc. as appropriate, have been paid. 8. DRI started an investigation into the imports of rough marble by PG and Priceless. It was able to identify from ICES how much marble was imported. It was able to identify how many licences were issued by the DGFT for import of rough marble to these two companies. It found that the licences(SILs) issued by the DGFT did not cover the total rough marble imported. In some Bills of Entry, the licence covered part of the consignment and in some others, the licence did not cover the import at all. 9. Marble City and its Custom House Agent, when asked by DRI, clarified that whenever the imported rough marble was not....
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....appellant paid the fine and penalties imposed. (vi) DRI issued the SCN dated 17.1.2014 covering 1052 Bills of Entry of which the alleged excess imports were only in respect of 252 Bills of Entry proposing to hold the goods liable to confiscation and impose penalties on Marble City and others. (vii) Marble City repeatedly requested DRI to provide copies of the SILs, adjudication orders and copies of these 252 Bills of Entry as assessed so that the appellant could file a proper reply to the SCN but DRI provided no records. (viii) Aggrieved, Marble City filed Writ Petitions before Delhi High Court and by order dated 29.8.2016, the Delhi High Court directed the Customs authorities to provide all Bills of Entry mentioned in the SCN within three months and keep the SCN proceedings in abeyance until then. (ix) Despite the specific directions of the High Court, no Bills of Entry were provided within three months from the High Court's order. (x) Later, on 9.1.2017 DRI provided copies of 62 Bills of Entry of which 21 were not even covered by the SCN. None of the copies of Bills of Entry had the manual entry or details of the adjudication orders. ....
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....t be reasonably expected to reconcile data which is very old. (xxii) The goods cannot be held to be liable to confiscation under section 111(d) and 111(m) of the Act on the ground that the appellant had fraudulently debited SILs without even mentioning which licence was debited against which Bill of Entry and without providing copies of the licence. Section 111(m) would also not apply because it is not even the case of the department that the appellant had mis-declared description, value or other details of the imported goods. (xxiii) Penalties under section 112 (a) and 114AA are not imposable in the facts of the case. (xxiv) The impugned order may be set aside and both appeals may be allowed. Submissions on behalf of M/s Vimal Forwarders, M/s Shirdi Sai Shipping Service, Professional Impex and Maas Infra and Logistics: 12. Learned counsels for these appellants adopted the submissions made by learned counsel for Marble City and prayed that the penalties imposed on them may be set aside. Submissions on behalf of the Revenue 13. Learned authorized representative for the Revenue vehemently supported the impugned order and submitted as follows: ....
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..... Assessment has two parts- (a) determining the how much duty is payable, compliance with restrictions, etc. based on the papers; and (b) physical examination of the goods in the import shed. If any discrepancies are found during physical examination, the examining officer would refer the Bill of Entry back to the Group Assistant Commissioner to take a decision. Once both these processes are completed, the Bill of Entry goes to the 'out of charge' officer who issues an order under section 47 permitting clearance of goods for home consumption after ensuring that, (a) the duty has been paid and (b) the goods are not prohibited for import. Section 46 under which the Bill of Entry is filed, section 17 under which the duty is assessed and section 47 under which the goods are cleared for home consumption, as they were during the relevant period, read as follows: 17. Assessment of duty.- (1) After an importer has entered any imported goods under section 46 or an exporter has entered any export goods under section 50 the imported goods or the export goods, as the case maybe, or such part thereof as may be necessary may, without un....
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....try by presenting electronically, allow an entry to be presented in any other manner: Provided further that if the importer makes and subscribes to a declaration before the proper officer, to the effect that he is unable for want of full information to furnish all the particulars of the goods required under this sub-section, the proper officer may, pending the production of such information, permit him, previous to the entry thereof (a) to examine the goods in the presence of an officer of customs, or (b) to deposit the goods in a public warehouse appointed under section 57 without warehousing the same. (2) Save as otherwise permitted by the proper officer, a bill of entry shall include all the goods mentioned in the bill of lading or other receipt given by the carrier to the consignor. (3) A bill of entry under sub-section (1) may be presented at any time after the delivery of the import manifest or import report, as the case may be: Provided that a bill of entry may be presented even before the delivery of such manifest or report, if the vessel or the aircraft or the vehicle by which the goods have been shipped for importation into India is expected to ....
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....etails of fine and penalties, etc. or even hard copies of the Bills of Entry where the details of fines and penalties imposed by the officer and paid by the appellant might have been recorded, the SCN was issued presuming that in all cases where there was a difference between the Bill of Entry and the SIL, the appellant had imported and cleared the goods without a licence. 20. It would be profitable to review how the goods actually move from the hands of the overseas exporter to the importer in India. The overseas exporter gives the goods to the Master of the Vessel or his agent who issues a Bill of Lading which is an acknowledgement of the receipt of goods and a document of title. After sailing to the port of import, the Master of the Vessel gives the goods to the Port Trust, which in turn, gives them to the custodian of ICD or CFS (usually under a document called 'equipment interchange receipt'). The custodian is licenced by the Customs and it will give the goods to the importer only when he produces, (a) the Bill of Lading and Delivery Order from the Shipping Line; and (b) Bill of Entry with an order clearing the goods for home consumption (out of charge) fr....
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.... department had was what was stored in ICES. Adjudication orders, not being part of the ICES were not in the system. 25. An illustration will explain the nature of the allegations in the SCN and the findings in the impugned order. If someone goes to an office, checks the attendance register of the staff which is ten years old and compares it with the calendar for that year, one can easily make out the working days on which different persons had not marked their attendance. There can be an explanation as to why a person had not marked his attendance on a particular working day ten years ago. One may have been on tour, one may have had to go for a meeting directly from home, one may have taken casual leave, one may have been sent out on some office work, etc. Now, if the person who was absent on a particular day is asked as to why he had not attended the office on a specific working day ten years ago and to produce documents to show that he was on leave or tour, etc., it is unlikely that he will have copies of the documents. Even the office may not have such old documents. Since the documents are not available, one cannot draw an adverse inference that the person was unauthorizedl....