TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 961
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....A, 2003. (b) I order for confiscation of seized 107 bundles of phool jhadu valued at Rs. 1,60,500 under Section 119 of the Customs Act, 1962. However, I give an option to the legal owner of the phool jhadu to get his seized phool jhadu redeemed on payment of redemption fine of Rs. 4C,125/-in lieu of confiscation in terms of section 125(1) of the Customs Act, 1962. Since the seized phool jhadu had already been release provisionally vide letter dated 16.12.2021 in compliance to the provisional release order dated 30.112021 on execution of Bond of full value of the seized Phool jhadu along with the security of Rs. 40,125/-, hence I order for appropriation of the said security amount of Rs. 40,125/ in the government account against the confiscation of the seized Phool jhadu. (c) I order for confiscation of the Truck (container) bearing registration No NL-01/AE-8342 valued at Rs. 13,00,000/- (Rupees Thirteen Lakhs only) under the provisions of Section 115(2) of the Customs Act, 1962. However, I give an option to the legal owner of the truck to get his seized truck redeemed on payment of redemption fine of Rs. 1,30,000/- (Rs. One Lakh rupees only) in lieu of confiscatio....
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...., 1962 for their acts of (i) I impose Penalty of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakhs only) Shri Vijay Shaw S/o Janardan Shaw, 2 Makhla Sebasadan, Uttarpara Kotrung (M), Rahgunathpur, Hooghly, West Bengal under Section 112(a) & (b) of the Customs Act, 1962 for their acts of omission and commission that has rendered the goods liable for confiscation. (j) I impose Penalty of Rs. 5,00,000/- (Rupees Five lakhs only) upon M/s DIAL Logistics Pvt. Ltd., (GSTIN No.-07AAACZ2731N1Z2)Kila No. 14/2, 16, 17, Musti No. 69, Baghola, Palwal, Haryana-121101 under Section 112(a) & (b) of the Customs Act, 1962 for their acts of omission and commission that has rendered the goods liable for confiscation. (k) I impose Penalty of Rs. 2,00,000/- (Rupees Two lakhs only) upon Shri Raju under Section 112(a) & (b) of the Customs Act, 1962 for their acts of omission and commission that has rendered the goods liable for confiscation. (k) I reserve the right to impose penalty under Section 112 (a) & (b) of the Customs Act, 1962 on the Noticee "To whomsoever it may concern", as and when identified and accessed to by the department." 1.3 In the present case, I am only concern wi....
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....ission that has rendered the goods liable for confiscation." 2.5 The said show cause notice was adjudicated as per the Order-in-Original referred in para 1.2 above. 2.6 Aggrieved appellant have filed appeal before Commissioner (Appeals) which has been dismissed as per the impugned order. 2.7 Aggrieved appellant have filed this appeal. 3.1 I have heard Shri Nagendra Krishna, Advocate for the appellant and Shri Manish Raj, Authorized Representative for the revenue. 4.1 I have considered the impugned orders along with the submissions made in appeal and during the course of argument. 4.2 For upholding Order-in-Original imposing penalty upon the appellant, impugned order records as follows:- "5.2 Now coming on the next issue of imposition of penalty upon the appellants. In this context, I find that as per the statement of Shri Hira Singh (appellant no. 1), he ordered for phool jhadu from Shri Raju and when asked about Raju he became ignorant about him and again when asked about the consigner M/s Serika Enterprises, Assam, he yet again expressed his unawareness about the consigner and similarly he did not provide any information about the transporter or driver ....
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....d overall facts of the case, I find that the quantum of penalty is just and appropriate and do not wish ti interfere with that." 4.3 I find that appellant has order for the phool jhadus which were being transported by the said vehicle which has been seized. The consignment was duly supported by the invoice and e-way bills. On comparison with the invoices the goods found were some short from the actual quantity (instead of 160 bundles 107 bundles found). Apart from the above consignment of phool jhadus, certain cigarettes of foreign origin brand were also found loaded in the same vehicles. However, I do not find any manner by which cigarettes are loaded/ transported to be attributed to the present appellant, who is neither transporter nor owner of the vehicle or in-charge of the vehicle. 4.4 As no connection could be established between appellant and illicit goods i.e. foreign origin cigarettes, I do not find any merits in the penalties imposed on the appellant. In case of Kiran S Dixit [2014 (301) ELT 337 (T-Bang)] Bangalore Bench held as follows: "5. The extracted portion of the statement shows clearly that the appellant gives containers on request made by importers....
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....on daily basis is quite substantial and verifying the Let Export Orders on the basis of e-mail from Customs was impractical. Accordingly, it has been prayed that the penalties may be set aside. 8. We have carefully examined the plea made by CONCOR and its employees. We note that during the course of investigation undertaken by the Customs authorities, nothing has been revealed on record to indicate any part played by the employees of CONCOR in the alleged smuggling of contraband. The ld. Commissioner in the impugned order has held that the railing out of container should not have been allowed since the e-mail sent by Customs CONCOR did not mention the let export order covering the present container. However, we find a lot force in the submission of CONCOR that the no. of containers booked on daily basis is quite large and it is practically difficult to co-relate the list of let export orders sent by e-mail by Customs with the containers booked and subsequent railing out of containers manually. In any case, it has been established that the documents indicating the let export order based on which the container was railed out were fraudulent and fabricated. Consequently, the ....