Home Case Index All Cases Customs Customs + HC Customs - 2020 (2) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2020 (2) TMI 701 - HC - CustomsMaintainability of Settlement Commission - applicability of Section 123 of CA on cigarettes - prohibited goods or not - HELD THAT:- It appears that looking to the provisions of Section 127B especially, third proviso thereof, no application could have been made by the respondent in relation to the goods to which Section 123 of the Customs Act, 1962 applies. In the facts of the present case, show cause notice was issued to this respondent on 7th April, 2017 (Annexure P-11 to the memo of this writ petition). The goods involved in this case is cigarettes which is a notified item. The Central Government notification is dated 25th July, 2016 with Notification No.103/2016 – Customs(NT). Once the goods in question are covered under Section 123, no application could have been preferred by the respondents under Section 127B of the Customs Act, 1962. The first application was preferred on 16.08.2017, the second was preferred on 11.12.2017 and the third application was preferred on 12.12.2017 which are subsequent to the aforesaid notification dated 25th July, 2016. Thus, by no stretch of imagination it can be said that the Settlement Commission had any power, jurisdiction and authority to decide an application preferred by the respondent under Chapter XIV of the Customs Act, 1962. It is well settled that an order passed by a Court cannot be so interpreted as permitting a statutory authority to act in violation of the statute. We are unable, therefore, to extend the order of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana as permitting the Settlement Commission to entertain the application, filed by the respondents before it on merits, even in the face of the expressed statutory proscription contained in the third proviso to serve Section 127B of the Customs Act. The order dated 15th February, 2018 (Annexure P-1 to the memo of this writ petition) passed by the Settlement Commission is set aside - petition disposed off.
|