9911796707
TMI Blog2007 (3) TMI 567X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... icence was issued to the appellants in January, 2003 with a validity period up to 24-1-2008. The appellants were also holding separate licence issued by the Commissioner of Customs, Cochin and that licence is said to be still valid. The events relevant to revocation of the Coimbatore licence took place in July, 2003. The appellants had filed three drawback Shipping Bills, Nos. 198 to 200, dated 15-7-2003 at ICD Coimbatore on behalf of one M/s. C.S. Textiles, Coimbatore. The consignments were declared 100% Cotton Men s T-shirts. They were detained by the Customs authorities on the ground of misdeclaration and over-valuation. It appeared to the authorities that the value of the goods had been boosted-up for the purpose of getting undue drawba ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n violation of Regulation 14(e) of the CHALR. There was no other allegation against the CHA in the SCN. In their reply to the SCN, the proprietor of Hazarath Agencies (CHA) explained that they had appointed Mr. Samuel Suresh Sunderraj, a G cardholder, as their authorized signatory at Coimbatore after obtaining approval of the Customs authorities, that nobody else had been appointed by them to do customs business on their behalf at Coimbatore and that Shri Sunderraj had not been given any authority to engage any other person for such work. The CHA, further, submitted that they had been kept in the dark by Shri Sunderraj about the subject shipments and that, as they came to know about his misconduct, his service was immediately terminated a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the Commissioner. The relevant provisions of the CHALR, 1984 are reproduced below :- 14. Obligations of Customs House Agent A Customs House Agent shall - (a) ..... (b) transact business in the Customs Station either personally or through an employee duly approved by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs, designated by the Commissioner ; (c) ........ (d) ...... (e) exercise due diligence to ascertain the correctness of any information which he imparts to a client with reference to any work related to clearance of cargo or baggage. It is not in dispute that the Shipping Bills were filed by the CHA s authorized signatory who held a valid G card issued by the departmen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s per instructions of the exporter. The department has no case that the CHA was acting without the exporter s authorization or beyond the latter s instructions. As a matter of fact, the department has failed to gather evidence from the exporter against the CHA. Lamentably enough, apparently, not even a SCN was issued to the exporter. The allegation raised in the SCN with reference to Regulation 14(e) is also unfounded. 6. The Tribunal s decision in C.J. Joshi s case supports the present appellants. In that case, Commissioner had revoked CHA licence on the ground that CHA had allowed unapproved persons to deal with export cargo and had failed to exercise due diligence to ascertain the status of the cargo. The Tribunal found no evidence of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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