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TMI Blog2014 (12) TMI 938X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s are also admitted by Shri Sumit V. Ghatkamble. It is also an admitted fact that the work has been brought by one Shri Mahesh Pande to Shri Sumit V. Ghatkamble to whom the appellant has allowed to use their CHA licence for some consideration. Therefore, the observation made by the adjudicating authority in the impugned order that “I find that no such permission has been obtained and that Shri Sumit V. Ghatkamble was not holding customs pass in the name of charged CHA while undertaking customs clearance of the subject export goods under the ten shipping bills of M/s. Leevon Overseas. Therefore, the charge under Article 12 has been proved against the appellant is beyond doubt” is not correct. The appellant has authorization from the expor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Shri Sitaram Jadhav in the name of fictitious/bogus export firms by resorting to gross overvaluation of the export goods. No foreign remittances were received against the subject exports. Neither Shri Sitaram Jadhav nor the other two members of the syndicate had a valid Custom House Agent (CHA) licence required for Customs clearances of the export goods and as such Shri Sitaram Jadhav negotiated with the various CHA Firms for allowing their CHA licences to be used by him without actually requiring them to attend to the clearances. It was further found that the appellant was involved in the clearance of the impugned consignment. During the course of investigation the statement of Shri Kailash Bahiru Jadhav, Director of M/s. Sun Clearing F ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the appellants and the Enquiry Officer held that all the charges against the appellants have been proved. Thereafter, an enquiry was initiated against the CHA and the article of charge was confirmed. Consequently the CHA licence was revoked. Therefore, the appellants are before us. 4. Shri J.C. Patel, learned Advocate appearing for the appellants submitted that the adjudicating authority was not consistent while taking the decision to revoke the CHA licence of the appellant as in the same investigation another CHA namely M/s. Frontier Shipping Agencies Pvt. Ltd. was also involved in the fraudulent export under buy-back scheme and in that case on the similar charges, an Inquiry was conducted and thereafter the Commissioner has made opera ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ther submitted that the Commissioner has not considered the decision in the case of Thawerdas Wadhoomal v. Commissioner of Customs - 2008 (221) E.L.T. 252 (Tri.-Mum.) wherein this Tribunal considered that procuring work on commission basis does not amount to sub-letting or otherwise transferring the CHA licence to other persons and the said order has been confirmed by the Hon ble High Court of Bombay as reported in 2009 (240) E.L.T. A143 (Bom.). 4.3 Therefore, he prayed that the CHA licence is under suspension since 2008 and the punishment suffered by the appellant may be considered as sufficient and their licence be made operative with immediate effect. 5. On the other hand the learned AR reiterated the findings in the impugned order ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vt. Ltd. (supra). In that case, the clearance was handled by Shri Vishwas Ramchandra Lanke who was a regular employee of the CHA had never physically attended to the examination of the export goods and Shri Vinayak Bethekar (employee of Shri Sitaram Jadhav and not the employee of the CHA) who used to attend to the examination of the export goods. On these findings the learned Commissioner of Customs came to the conclusion that the charge is not proved. The same view was taken by this Tribunal in the case of Dhimant P. Doshi (supra). In this case, the facts are similar to the case of Frontier Shipping Agencies P. Ltd. and N.H. Desai Co. All these cases have been made out against the appellant and the other CHAs under a common investigation ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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