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2020 (1) TMI 62 - HC - CustomsSmuggling - Indian Currency - only issue pressed by the Revenue, before the Commissioner (Appeals), was that the AC ought not to have allowed release of the Indian currency to the petitioners on payment of redemption fine and penalty - HELD THAT:- The owner of the currency being Surender Gupta (Petitioner No. 2), there could, undisputedly, be no question of releasing the currency to Petitioner No. 1. We are, however, completely at a loss as to how, on this ground, the Revisionary Authority could allow the Revision Application of the Revenue. Both the petitioners were before him. A reading of the Order-in-Original of the AC does not indicate that option to redeem the currency had been granted, by the AC, to Petitioner No. 1. The Order-in-Appeal of the Commissioner (Appeals) makes the matter clear by observing that, as the owner, i.e., Petitioner No. 2, was known, redemption of the currency could be granted to Petitioner No. 2. In this backdrop, it is impossible to understand how the Revisionary Authority set aside the said order, by holding that redemption of the currency could not be granted to Petitioner No. 1. Both the petitioners were before the Revisionary Authority. Even if, for a moment, it were to be assumed that the Revisionary Authority read the orders of the authorities below as allowing the redemption of the currency to Petitioner No. 1, all that he was required to do to remedy the situation, was to substitute the said direction by permitting redemption of the currency to Petitioner No. 2. There was no occasion, whatsoever, for the Revisionary Authority to set aside the Order-in-Appeal, wholesale, thereby rendering the seized currency irredeemable, even by Petitioner No. 2. Exercise of discretion, by judicial, or quasi-judicial authorities, merits interference only where the exercise is perverse or tainted by patent illegality, or is tainted by oblique motives Mangalam Organics Ltd. v. UOI [2017 (4) TMI 1223 - SUPREME COURT]. No illegality, much less perversity, is discernible in the decision, of the AC, to allow redemption of the seized currency on payment of redemption fine of ₹ 50,000/-. The Commissioner (Appeals) rightly refused to interfere with the said decision, and the Revisionary Authority, in an order which reflects total non-application of mind, chose to reverse the said decision. The decision of the Commissioner (Appeals) as well as the order of the AC stands affirmed - The seized currency shall, therefore, forthwith be returned to Petitioner No. 2 - petition allowed.
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