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2018 (5) TMI 2043 - AT - CustomsCHA license - Seeking enhancement of the detriment to final revocation of licence itself - Commissioner of Customs (General), New Custom House, Mumbai restricted the detriment to forfeiture of security amount deposited by the custom house agent at the time of obtention of licence and directed operationalising of the licence contingent upon depositing fresh security amount - HELD THAT:- The enactment of Customs Act, 1962, intended to consolidate and amend the various laws related to customs, is in pursuance of the constitutional authority vested in Parliament to legislate on ‘duties of customs including export duties’ in serial no. 83 of List I in Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. Almost, in its entirety, it consists of the manner of, and authority to, collect taxes for which specific mandates on goods, conveyances, as well as land and sea frontiers, are coupled with penal - confiscatory, fiscal and criminal -consequences for enforcing such authority. Within this scheme, the institution of ‘custom brokers’ has been incorporated in section 146 of Customs Act, 1962, even though it could have had a separate legislate existence, owing to synergy and convenience. A close parallel can be seen in the framework of disciplinary proceedings that govern detriment to terms and conditions of service. The designated disciplinary authority may impose stipulated penalties, including dismissal, removal or retirement from office, in accordance with the procedure prescribed which may be appealed against by the employee. There is no provision within that framework for the disciplinary, or any higher, authority to appeal for enhancement and the employer is competent to seek judicial redressal for the limited purpose of enforcing the penalty imposed by the disciplinary/appellate authority. In like manner, it is inconceivable that an authority that is administratively superior to the licensing authority should be empowered to direct the licensing authority to seek retraction of its own order. An order issued under the Customs Broker Licencing Regulations, 2018 (or any predecessor Regulations) is not an adjudication order and, save as provided in the Regulations and subject to section 146(2)(f) creating specific jurisdiction, no appeal can lie to the Tribunal. As the impugned Regulations, circumscribed, as they are, by the limited scope of section 146(2)(f) of Customs Act, 1962, do not provide for an appeal against dropping of proceedings thereunder, the general provisions for appeal being applicable only to adjudication orders, with the special law prevailing over the general law and there being no demonstration of legislative intent, explicit or otherwise, or need for such to allow appeals by the licensing authorities against their own orders - Appeal dismissed.
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