9911796707
TMI Blog1983 (3) TMI 277X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he arguments of Shri S.K. Choudhury, Senior Departmental Representative, for the respondent, the Tribunal makes the following. 3. The appeal is filed before the Tribunal against the Order-in-appeal No.C.3/1395/1980, dated 4-12-1981 of the Appellate Collector of Customs, Madras passed under Section 12S of the Customs Act, 1962, rejecting their appeal against the Order No.S25/1752/1980, dated 18-4-1980 of the Assistant Collector of Customs (Refunds), Custom House, Madras-1. 4. A consignment of 520 bags of High Density Polyethylene Sholex F. 5010 was imported ex-s.s Panteleymon Lepenshinskiy and duty was paid under Bill of Entry D. 653, dated 12-10-1979. Survey conducted by the steamer agents before clearance of the goods revealed cert ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by us on 15-2-1983 ; therein we have found that where goods are not available to an importer at the time of clearance for home consumption and the non-availability is attributable to pilferage, the provisions of Section 13 of the Customs Act, 1962, would alone be relevant. We, therefore, deal only with the citations now referred to by the learned counsel for the appellants in urging that we are bound by the decision of the Delhi High Court in the Sialkot Industrial Corporation case. 6. In the case of Godavaridevi Saraf referred to supra a Divisional Bench of the Bombay High Court was considering whether a decision of the Madras High Court declaring Section 140A(3) of the Income-tax Act as being violative of Article 19(l)(f) of the Cons ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was dealing with a section of the Income-tax Act which was declared ultra vires the Constitution ; he found that until that decision was differed from by any other High Court, or modified by the Supreme Court, it would have to be followed by all authorities including those in the Income-tax Tribunal at Bombay, as it would be anomalous to have the possibility of the Income-tax Tribunal sitting at Bombay trying to enforce the provisions of Section 140(A)(3) in its jurisdiction whereas it would not be possible to do so by a Bench sitting at Madras, which would, in any case, be bound by the decision of the Madras High Court. We are strengthened in this view by the observation of the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of H.R. Sy ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ws on a point that arises before a Customs authority. The Assistant Collector has given his reasons for not taking the view taken by the Madras High Court in Rikabdoss s case. I do not think that the mere fact that there was a decision of the Madras High Court in favour of the present respondent can be of any assistance to him for the purpose of seeking the interference of the Court on this petition. 7. It is thus clear that the Bombay High Court has itself distinguished two aspects-(1) that an earlier decision regarding the Income-tax Act need not necessarily be followed in the case of the Customs Act, 1962 and (2) that a decision of another High Court is not necessarily binding on an administrative authority in the jurisdiction of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ere in the present case I have pointed out that in my opinion the refusal of the Collector to follow the Madras decision was something which no reasonable man would do quite apart from the fact that the view which he had taken that adhesive tapes is only a compendious description of a number of categories of goods and not a marketable commodity is itself demonstrably absurd to quote the Madras case. 9. In the result, we hold that the decision of the Hon ble High Court, Delhi is not binding on this Tribunal and for the reasons given in detail in the appeal of Bharat Electronics Ltd. v. Collector of Customs, Madras (Appeal No. CD(T)(MAS)167/81)-1983 E.L.T. 653, the provisions of Section 13 of the Customs Act, 1962 will apply in this ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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