2025-VIL-1079-BOM-CU
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CUSTOMS High Court Cases

Customs – Clearance of prohibited goods, Adherence to legal procedures and principles of natural justice – Petitioner imported dry dates. The goods were cleared by the Customs authorities after following due verification - The sixth respondent, Intelligence Officer, received information that the goods may have originated from Pakistan, which is prohibited by DGFT Notification No. 06/2025-26 dated 2 May 2025. Without following any formal legal procedure, respondents contacted the Customs broker and transporter and allegedly forced them to bring the already cleared goods back to the customs facility - Whether the actions of the sixth respondent in forcing the return of the cleared goods were legal and in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Act - HELD - The goods had been cleared by a proper officer under Section 47 of the Customs Act after due verification. The sixth respondent-Intelligence Officer, instead of following the legal procedure of issuing a show-cause notice or adopting other statutory means to revoke the clearance, arbitrarily forced the return of the goods without any contemporaneous recording of reasons or adherence to principles of natural justice - The actions of the Intelligence Officer were not backed by any specific provisions of the Customs Act, particularly Sections 47 and 106. The lack of any written record of the reasons for his belief that the goods were of Pakistani origin, despite the initial clearance, was a significant infirmity. The statutory powers must be exercised in accordance with the law and that the ends cannot justify the means, especially when dealing with civil consequences for a party - It is well settled that principles of natural justice and fairness must be followed before any party is subjected to serious civil consequences. Even such principles do not appear to have been followed even minimally in the present case. The respondents are directed to issue a show-cause notice to the petitioner within four weeks and dispose of the same within six weeks. If the respondents fail to do so, the goods are to be released upon the petitioner furnishing a bank guarantee to secure the payment of a redemption fine, if any – The writ petition is disposed of
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