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TMI Blog1983 (4) TMI 53X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ause 7 of the conditions attached to it the company was permitted to apply for renewal of the same. The licence was renewed from time to time and the last renewal was granted on 24th November 1981 for the period from 1st January 1982 to 31st December 1982. By a notice dated 18th September 1982 purporting to have been issued under Section 58(2)(a) of the Act, the Assistant Collector, Central Excise (Division Satna) wrote to the company that it was being given a notice of two months after which its licence to run the private bonded warehouses will be deemed to have been cancelled. By the same notice the company was intimated that a public customs bonded warehouse had started functioning at Bhopal and that the company may warehouse its goods in that warehouse at Bhopal. The company protested but it was informed by letter dated 23rd September 1982 issued by the Assistant Collector that it is the Government's policy not to grant licence for private bonded warehouse. The company wrote to the Collector, Customs and Central Excise, on 25th September 1982 to permit it to operate its private bonded warehouse at Kymore. The company also wrote to the Director, Central Board of Excise & Customs ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... alone public warehouses may be appointed and private warehouses may be licensed. Section 57 provides that at any warehousing station the Assistant Collector of Customs may appoint public warehouses wherein dutiable goods may be deposited without payment of duty. Section 58 which deals with the licensing of private warehouses reads as follows : "58. Licensing of private warehouses. -(1) At any warehousing station, the Assistant Collector of Customs may license private warehouses wherein dutiable goods imported by or on behalf of the licensee, or any other imported goods in respect of which facilities for deposit in a public warehouse are not available, may be deposited without payment of duty. (2) The Assistant Collector of Customs may cancel a licence granted under sub-section (1) — (a) by giving one month's notice in writing to the licensee; or (b) if the licensee has contravened any provision of this Act or the rules or regulations or committed breach of any of the conditions of the licence : Provided that before any licence is cancelled under clause (b), the licensee shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard. (3) Pending an enquiry whether a licence granted u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... istant Collector of Customs has to see whether "facilities for deposit in a public warehouse are not available." The availability of these facilities, on a proper construction of Section 58, must be considered with reference to the particular warehousing station for which the application is made to license a private warehouse. If an application for licensing a private warehouse can be rejected under Section 58 on the consideration that facilities for deposit in a public warehouse at any warehousing station are available, it will make Section 58 a dead letter, for such facilities would always be available at some warehousing station at any rate in the public warehouses appointed at the ports of import which are all warehousing stations. When under Section 9 the Board declares a place to be a warehousing station it must be presumed that it has considered that it is such place where having regard to the needs of Trade and Industry public warehouses may be appointed and private warehouses may be licensed. If at a particular warehousing station a public warehouse has been appointed under Section 57, the Assistant Collector will refuse licence for private warehouses at that station unles ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hority on this point is the statement of principle by Lord Greene MR in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v. Wednesbury Corpn. [1947] 2 All ER 680 (C.A.) at p. 682, wherein he said : "A person entrusted with a discretion must direct himself properly in law. He must call his own attention to the matters which he is bound to consider. He must exclude from his consideration matters which are irrelevant." These words of Lord Greene MR have been cited with approval by the House of Lords and the Supreme Court [Padfied v. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1968) 1 All ER 694 (H.L.); United Kingdom Association of Professional Engineers and another v. Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (1910) 1 All ER 612 (H.L.) at p. 620; Rohtas Industries Ltd., v. S.D. Agarwal (A.I.R. 1969 S.C. 707 at p. 717). In the instant case the customs authorities in cancelling the company's licence and in refusing to renew the same under Section 58 misdirected themselves in law in that they proceeded upon a misconstruction of the section and took into account an irrelevant fact that there was a public warehouse at Bhopal. 9. Further, by acting blindly upon the policy statement in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e under which it functions. Once such a policy is laid down, the authority is entitled to apply the policy in the individual cases which come before it. The only qualification is that the authority must not apply the policy so rigidly as to reject an application without affording an opportunity to the applicant to put forward reasons urging that the policy should be changed or that it should not be applied to him [Saqnata Ltd. v. Norwich Corpn. (1971) 3 W.L.R. 133 (C.A.) at pp. 149-141 (Lord Denning M.R.)]. As a necessary corollary, the licensing authority should not pursue consistency on the basis of a policy at the expense of the merits of individual cases [Regina v. Flintshire County Council Licensing (Stage Plays) Committee Exparte Barrett,supra at p. 368]. These principles were accepted by the Supreme Court in Shri Rama Sugar Industries v. State of A.P. (AIR 1974 S.C. 1745 at p. 1750) subject to a doubtful exception upheld by a majority of three against two that the amplitude of a discretionary power in a given case may be so wide that the competent authority may be impliedly entitled to adopt a fixed rule never to exercise its discretion in favour of a particular class of per ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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