9911796707
TMI Blog1986 (8) TMI 75X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1, Nagpur. By these communications the facility of storing imported raw material in a private bonded warehouse of the petitioner situated within the factory premises, granted under Section 58 of the Customs Act, 1962 ("the Act") has been withdrawn. 2. The factory is situated in an 'industrial area' within the meaning of Section 2(g) of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Act, 1961, at a distance of about 8 kilometres from the Corporation limits of the City of Nagpur. The petitioner requires high density polyethylene moulding powder and low density moulding powder and granules, which are imported under a valid import licence. With the liberalised policy of import, particularly after 1976, it became possible for the petitioner to stock s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed in the same and that no space certificate for bonding goods could be granted to a private bonded warehouse. 3. The contention of the petitioner is that the policy decision of not granting licence for a private warehouse at a particular warehousing station on the ground that a public warehouse has been established at a different warehouse station is ultra vires of the letter and spirit of the Act. To examine the validity of this point it will be necessary to notice the salient provisions of the Act. Duties and customs are levied at prescribed rates on the grounds imported in India. Chapter VII deals with the clearance of imported goods and export goods, and Chapter IX with Warehousing. Section 57 permits appointment of public warehouses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... At any warehousing station, the Assistant Collector of Customs may licence private warehouses 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 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... separated by a distance of about 8 kilometres. Both are different warehousing stations declared such as by two different notifications. M.I.D.C. Warehousing Station does not have the facility of a public warehouse whereas the Nagpur city warehousing station has such facility since 1981. Warehousing stations are declared only after considering the need of having a warehouse. Again it is within the discretion of the Customs authorities to establish a public warehouse in any warehousing station. If such facility is provided for there cannot exist a right in anybody to get a licence for establishing a private warehouse. It may be a sound policy not to grant licence under Section 58 in any warehousing station in case public warehouse has been a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ere cannot be genuine exercise of the discretion if the letter and spirit of statute is misconstrued. Taking into consideration Sections 9, 57, 58 it seems to us that the proper implementation of the policy would be not to grant or renew licences for private warehouses at warehousing stations in the interior only after appointing public warehouses at those places which satisfy the need of a particular warehousing station. 6. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had occasion to consider the validity of such a policy in the case of Asbestos Cement Ltd. and Another v. Union of India and Others (1983 Excise Law Times 883). The gist of the ratio of that exhaustive and weighty judgment is : "But when at a particular warehousing station there is no p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ept of place de hors an identifiable limit. In a great measure the question would be one of fact in each case. In the context of Section 2(45) it has to be a definite area so marked out that it can be found and recognized as a place. Quite obviously it means an area within the known boundary. If the boundaries notified are entirely different, it is difficult to see how the area within the two boundaries could be the same place. In Aiyar's Judicial Dictionary, 9th Edition at page 744, it is mentioned : " "place". The word "place" may be a large area; all that is necessary is that the place should be sufficiently defined so that the public is reasonably notified of its extent. There is not much distinction between a place and an area, ...." ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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