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2019 (1) TMI 1292 - HC - CustomsMaintainability of petition - efficacious alternative remedy of appeal - Section 129A of the Customs Act - Held that:- Indeed, the Exts.P3 and P4 spell out the procedure for registration of a shipping agent. They do not in explicit terms refer to the mechanism of revoking the registration. But this seeming lacuna does not detain us any longer. For it is well established that an authority having power to do something has, by implication, unless expressly prohibited, the power to undo it. It is an inherent administrative power, subject to statutory stipulations or limitations. Here, though this Court avoids adverting to the merits, the Company and its employees, prima facie, face a grave allegation of fabricating the documents and falsifying the records. I reiterate it is only an allegation, though. Is that alternative remedy efficacious? - Held that:- The statutory authorities under the Customs Act, notes the Supreme Court in Kothari Filaments [2008 (12) TMI 28 - SUPREME COURT], discharge quasi-judicial functions. Therefore, an adverse order could affect a person's property and that may be through confiscation, redemption fine, personal fine and so on. In other words, a finding of statutory violation results in civil or evil consequences. So the principles of natural justice must be complied with. Kothari Filaments has gone on to observe that the Act, in the first place, does not prohibit the application of the principles of natural justice. It observes that the existence of grounds for confiscating the goods is a sine qua non for the authorities to issue a notice under Section 124. Without the information to the person concerned about the grounds of confiscation, it would be impossible for that person to defend himself. So the notice under Section 124 must satisfy all the statutory ingredients - the petitioners in both the writ petitions were served with show-cause notices replete with information-true or false, though-and were supplied with the documents they had asked for. Petition dismissed.
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