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2018 (10) TMI 1578 - HC - CustomsDirections to Customs i.e. Respondent No.2 to hand over all the documents pertaining to 41 Advance Licenses along with certificate that same are lost or misplaced - Held that - The Petitioner s appeal from the order dated 24th February, 1997/ 9th April, 1997 of the Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade was last heard by the Appellate Authority on 12th May, 2004. Since then, according to the Petitioner, the appeal is still awaiting disposal. Thus, the re-validation of the 29 Advance Licenses which are a part of 41 misplaced licenses (Ex. W to the Petition), would primary depend upon the result of the appeal filed by the Petitioner. Only then the question of the Licenses being produced would arise - petition disposed off.
Issues:
1. Petition seeking directions to Customs to hand over documents pertaining to 41 Advance Licenses and a certificate of duty-foregone. 2. Delay in adjudicating a show cause notice leading to a Writ Petition. 3. Request for re-validation of 41 Advance Licenses after a previous court order quashing a show cause notice. 4. Alleged lack of cooperation from Customs in issuing the required certificates. 5. Information about cancellation of 29 out of 41 Advance Licenses and pending appeal. Analysis: 1. The petition was filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, requesting Customs to provide documents related to 41 Advance Licenses and a duty-foregone certificate. The licenses were taken by Customs in 1995 during a raid on the petitioner's premises. After a delay of over 17 years in adjudicating a show cause notice issued in 1997, a Writ Petition was filed, resulting in the notice being quashed and the amount deposited refunded. 2. Following the court order in 2015, the petitioner sought the return of the 41 Advance Licenses to re-validate them for business use. However, Customs informed that not all documents were available in original. Despite the petitioner's efforts to follow the re-validation procedure, Customs allegedly did not cooperate, leading to the filing of the current petition seeking the necessary certificates. 3. During the proceedings, Customs stated that the documents were made available to the petitioner in 2017, but they were not collected. Customs assured cooperation in providing the required licenses and assisting in duty-foregone computation. The court allowed the petition in terms of the petitioner's request for the certificates. 4. Additionally, it was revealed during the hearing that 29 out of the 41 Advance Licenses had been canceled by the Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade in 1997, with a pending appeal by the petitioner. The court noted the pending appeal and directed the Appellate Authority to issue a notice for a personal hearing within six weeks to decide the appeal without influence from any previous observations. 5. The judgment concluded by allowing the petition in the specified terms without any order as to costs, addressing the issues of document retrieval, duty-foregone certificates, canceled licenses, and the pending appeal effectively.
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