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TMI Blog1987 (4) TMI 87X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t. 3. W.P. No. 2951 of 1987 : The writ petitioner is an importer of pulses for domestic consumption. In accordance with the import policy of the Government of India as published for the period April 1985 to March 1988, all eligible importers are required to register their contracts with the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). In keeping with this, the petitioner had also registered his name and for the past over two years, the petitioner had been importing pulses. 4. Under Chapter VII of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, the following entry is found : Heading No. Sub-heading Number and Description of Articles Rate of Standard Duty Preferential area ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1987, inasmuch as the Customs authorities, acting on the basis of this notification, sought to assess the petitioner to customs duty and on his refusal to pay the customs duty clearance of goods had been denied to him, it has become necessary for the petitioner to file the writ petition. 5. Mr. V.M. Lenin, learned Counsel for the petitioner, urges before me that it was on the basis of Notification No. 129, dated 2-8-1976, which existed at the time of the petitioner placing orders that the import has been made and that notification would govern the rights of the parties. If really there is to be a denial of that exemption, proper notice ought to be given as laid down in Clements v. County of Devon Insurance Committee, (1918) 1 KB 101. Even ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... That defines 'import' as follows : " 'Import', with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means bringing into India from a place outside India." Then, with regard to the date for determination of rate of duty and tariff valuation of imported goods, it is Section 15(l)(a) which will be relevant and that is extracted as below: "The rate of duty, and tariff valuation, if any, applicable to any imported goods, shall be the rate and valuation in force, - (a) in the case of goods entered for home consumption under Section 46, on the date on which a bill of entry in respect of such goods is presented under that section." What had happened in this case was, by exercise of the power under Section 25, an earlier notification h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... E.L.T. 162) that the relevant date for the import of goods was the date of presentation of the bill of entry and not the date when the ship arrived in the territorial waters of India. The ratio of that decision squarely applies here. The same view had come to be taken in M. Jamal Company v. U.O.I. [1985 (21) E.L.T. 369] by a Division Bench of this Court. It held,- "Chargeability to customs duty does not start when the goods are in the 'territorial waters' of India but only when they get mixed up with the mass of India." It requires to be noted that the Devision Bench also rejected the connection of promissory estoppel in the following words : - "The 'promissory estoppel' as the name itself would suggest that a promise, in whatever for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... v. Union of India and Others [1983 E.L.T. 1688 (Del.)] by the High Court of Delhi. It was held therein that the rate of customs duty cannot be calculated at the point of time when ship enters the territorial waters of India but at the point of time when the goods are to be off loaded from the ship so that thereafter they form part of the mass of the goods in the country of consumption. Again it was held therein that a notification of exemption issued under Section 25(1) of the Customs Act is a legislative order and estoppel cannot be pleaded against the operation of the statute. Finally, I may refer to the ruling of the Supreme Court in Collector of Customs, Calcutta and Another v. G. Dass Co. and Others [1988 E.L.T. 1511 (S.C.)] wherein ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Parliament. Therefore, if the same Central Government which initiated notification and amended it subsequently under Section 25(1) ibid, it cannot be said that the Central Government cannot modify the total exemption or partial exemption." "In matter of policy decisions concerning international trade and commerce, the decision taken by the authorities concerned must be accepted without demur and court should not be expected to launch into the desirability, the economic wisdom, the soundness of immonestarists policies which are necessarily involved when such decisions are taken by the Central Government being beyond the keen of judicial scrutiny and field in the absence of any constitutional infirmity." "What duty is to be imposed a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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