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TMI Blog2008 (2) TMI 25X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... porter, the goods were warehoused in one of the bonded godowns of the Central Warehousing Corporation on 30th May 1996 for an initial period of one year. The respondent thereafter applied for the extension of the warehousing period which was allowed by the Commissioner, Customs on 5th September 1997 upto 31st March 1998. A security deposit of about Rs.10, 00,000/- and an advance customs duty of about Rs.98, 00,000/- were deposited with the department on 31st March 1998 but the goods were still not cleared. From 1998 till 31st January 2001, several notices were sent to the respondent to clear the goods or to pay the duty and during this period the warehousing period was extended six times with the last extension expiring on 31st January 2001. As the respondent sought no further extension thereafter, the aforesaid period came to an end. Several notices were thereafter issued to the respondent under Section 72(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereinafter called the "Act") raising a demand of duty etc. As no reply was forthcoming, a notice under section 72(2) of the Act was issued to the respondent on 3rd December 2001 for sale of the goods by auction so as to recover of the outstanding du ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ficient to meet only a part of the demand. On 18th July 2006 the respondent filed yet another Writ Petition No. 4655 of 2006 before the Bombay High Court for a direction to re-export the goods. This Writ Petition came up for hearing before the High Court on 26th July 2006 and the High Court directed the department to file a statement as to the expenses that had been incurred by it till date. The department thereupon filed a detailed affidavit in the Bombay High Court pointing out the repeated defaults on the part of the respondent and that the protracted proceedings in one forum or the other had resulted in a revenue loss of Rs.8.55 crores. This Writ Petition was disposed of by the order dated 9th August 2006 by accepting the undertaking of the respondent to re-export the goods by 14th September 2006 without calling upon the respondent to pay any duty. This order has been impugned in the present Special Leave Petition. The respondent thereafter moved an application in CWP No. 4655 of 2006 before the Bombay High Court seeking a clarification that the order passed on 9th August 2006 was with consent of both parties. The Division Bench in its order dated 14th February 2007 observed th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in Commissioner of Customs,Calcutta & Ors. V. Indian Oil Corpn. Ltd. & Anr. (2004) 3 SCC 488, the primary argument raised by the learned appellant's counsel with regard to the maximum period of warehousing, had no substance. It has also pointed out that the surrender document dated 31st December 2004 had been withdrawn by the respondent vide letter dated 21st September 2005 on the plea that it wanted to clear the goods and that an application for this purpose had also been made under section 69 of the Act. In answer to Mr. Agrawal's plea it has been submitted that it was not open to the Union of India to contend that a circular issued by one of its officers was contrary to the Statute in the light of the judgment in the case of Commissioner of Customs, Calcutta (supra). 6. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the record very carefully. The matter would turn on an examination of the various provisions of the Act. Section 46 of the Act deals with entry of goods on importation and warehousing of the goods in certain circumstances. Section 47 deals with clearance of goods for home consumption. Section 48 postulates that in case any goods imported in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... less been extended time and again on the request of the respondent upto 31st January 2001 whereafter no application for extension had been made. It is also clear to us from the letter dated 31st December 2004 that the respondent had intimated that he was surrendering the goods as the purpose for which they had been imported could not be implemented. We are of the opinion that merely because the respondent thereafter withdrew the offer of surrender would not make any difference to its cause. Mr. Sunil Kumar, the learned senior counsel has, however, submitted that though the Statute did indeed fix the maximum period of warehousing to be of one year, yet the various circulars issued by the Board under section 151 (A) of the Act had made a clear departure from the aforesaid provisions. He has in particular placed reliance on circulars dated 14th January 2003 and 29th July 2002 which dealt with the special grant of the warehousing period by the Chief Commissioner under Section 61. The circular dated 14th January 2003 is pre-faced by referring to the circular dated 29th July 2002 and the remarks that clarifications had been sought whether goods imported and bonded in a warehouse could be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th October 2005 with a direction that the application for re-export filed by the respondent be disposed of by the Chief Commissioner by a reasoned order. As already mentioned above, the Chief Commissioner vide his order dated 3rd January 2006 rejected the prayer of the petitioner for re-import of the goods as being legally untenable and observing thus : "From the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case as detailed above, it is clear that the Importer have no intention, whatsoever to clear the goods. Their sole aim throughout there almost a 'decade' long period has been to 'stall' the disposal of these un-cleared time-expired bonded goods. It is also surprising to note that they have been taking self-contradictory grounds to hamper the disposal of the goods. Once, they surrender their title to the goods, then they come up with a proposal to clear the same on payment of duty + interest leviable thereon and again they plead that they want to re-export the goods to a SEZ Unit in Pitampur. All these prevaricating and ever shifting stands taken by them have resulted in non-disposal of the time-expired bonded goods and non-realization of valuable government revenue. These documented ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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