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2018 (11) TMI 1947 - AT - CustomsSmuggling - betel Nuts - country of origin - notified goods under Section 123 of the Customs Act and onus to prove - HELD THAT:- It is noted that the reliance on the opinion of Arecanut Research & Development Foundation (ARDF), Mangalore as regards the country of origin by the Original Adjudicating Authority was not proper inasmuch as the said organization in reply to an RTI query has stated that it is not possible to determine the place of origin of betel nuts through test in laboratory - even if the betel nuts are held to be of foreign origin, the same can be confiscated only when it is proved that betel nuts has been illegally smuggled into the country. Revenue has not produced any evidence to show that the betel nuts in question were smuggled into India. In the absence of any positive evidence to establish the foreign origin of the goods and their illegal smuggling into the country, the Appellate Authority is agreed upon that their confiscation is neither warranted nor justified. As such, there are no infirmity in the impugned order of the Commissioner (Appeals). Accordingly, Revenue’s appeal is rejected.
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