9911796707
TMI Blog2016 (10) TMI 292X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... national Trade Co. Ltd., Taiwan., through its representative Shri Sanjay Singh having telephone no.8145543052 and Email ID. [email protected]. Shri Sanjay Singh nominated M/s. National Agency as a Customs House Agent and M/s. A.G.S.World Transport (I) Pvt. Ltd. as freight forwarder and authorized agent and M/s. Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. The appellants appointed National Agency to be its Customs House Agent on the request of Shri Sanjay Singh. One container bearing No.OOLU1218170 was sent by Mr.Singh to the appellant factory premises for the purpose of stuffing of the cargo. The goods were stuffed in container and transported under multimodal shipment. 2. The shipping company, Freight Forwarders and Custom House Agent, all t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... monitoring of container movements from appellants premises till export are required to be undertaken by the appellants. That such responsibility is cast on multimodal transportation operator under Section 13 of the Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993. That under this Act, no responsibility for any transportation irregularities can be attributed to his clients. That the container was stuffed in the premises of the appellants. When the container was intercepted the seals and the container were found to be broken and the Glass Chimneys stuffed by the appellants was stolen by breaking open the container. That appellants are not required to file any document with the Customs as mentioned in Section 113 of the Customs Act, 1962 and accor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... issue involved in the present proceedings is whether penalties have been correctly imposed upon the appellants under Section 114 of the Customs Act, 1962. Penalties under this section are imposable upon the person who in relation to any goods does omits to do any act which would render such goods liable to be confiscated under Section 113 or abetted doing or omission of such act. In the present proceedings a container was stuffed and sealed by one time seal in the presence of the appellants. But after a delay of few days when the consignment was intercepted it was found that the seal and container are broken. The Adjudicating Authority has held the appellants responsible for the negligence. It is observed from Section 13 of Multimodal Trans ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat is contained in the container; the appellants have deployed surveyors in different places. It is the responsibility of the surveyors to receive the empty containers back from the importers, handing over the empty containers for export to the party on production of the Delivery Order, receipt of stuffed containers duly sealed by the Customs on proper documents. The appellants do not exercise control over transportation of containers. The only aspect that is verified when the container is handed over back is whether it is damaged or not. Once the container is not damaged, it again enters into the trading channels for stuffing and destuffing and moves from place to place. After going through the statement of the appellant and the circumsta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ty. That there has been negligence by Air India of a high order is clear. Apart from anything else it was the duty of the consignor and consignee of the goods to deliver it. The fact that the goods which throughout were in the control of Air India were shown to be short landed, while although they had been removed from the Customs area highlight this negligence. At the same time, however, negligence alone is not enough for imposition of penalty. For penalty to be imposed under clause (a) of Section 112, they will have to be shown an act or omission to perform a duty cast by law. Neither of these two is proved. The departmental representative was not able to say what duty it was, the performance of which that was cast upon the airline that w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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