9911796707
TMI Blog2023 (7) TMI 72X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ether the appellant is liable to pay any penalty under Sections 114(i), 114(iii) and 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962 for not acting judiciously and with diligence despite a clear finding that they are not directly involved in the smuggling of red sanders? 3. The appellants are exporters of Sponge Iron. A specific intelligence was received by the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Nagpur Regional Unit (DRI) that Red Sanders were being illegally exported to Dubai through ICD, Nagpur by a Chennai based syndicate. Intelligence further indicated that offenders got the containers stuffed with export goods of the appellant herein and diverted such goods on the way to a godown situated at Raipur for tampering and stuffing of red sande ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 016. But on physical examination it found containing 17060 kgs of red sanders and only 4150 kgs of sponge iron and those were also seized by DRI on 19.10.2016. 4. After thorough investigation including recording the statements of the persons concerned u/s. 108 ibid it was found that syndicate of one Abdul Jafer had managed to illegally export 13 consignments/containers of red sanders in the guise of sponge iron in the name of the appellant and out of the 13 consignment DRI was able to call back one consignment from Dubai and one container/consigned was intercepted by the DRI on 2.10.2016 as mentioned above. According to DRI the syndicate consisting of Shri Abdul Jaffer, Shri Ajay @ Topiwala @Rajiv Gupta, Shri Rajesh Subramaniam, Shri Panna ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers could have been avoided and therefore penalty u/s. 114(i), 114(iii) & 114AA ibid were proposed against them in the said show cause notice which culminated into the Order-in-Original dated 17.4.2018 by which the adjudicating authority imposed penalty of Rs.1 crore on the appellant u/s. 114(i), 114(iii) & 114AA ibid. On Appeal filed by the appellant, the 1st Appellate Authority reduced the said penalty to Rs.50 lakhs. 6. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that the appellant has nothing to do with the export etc. of the red sanders and therefore the provisions of section 114 ibid are not applicable to the appellant as they have not done anything or omitted to do anything leading to confiscation of the red sanders u/s. 113(d) & (g) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or the purpose of the Customs Act whereas there is no such allegations against the appellant and therefore this provision also cannot be invoked and resultantly the appellants cannot be held liable for any penalty. Learned counsel also submits that in support of their submissions they had submitted various case laws before the learned commissioner but the same were simply rejected by the said authority without any discussions about them in the impugned order. Per contra learned authorised representative appearing for revenue supported the findings recorded in the impugned order and prayed for rejection of appeal. 7. I have heard learned counsel for the appellant and learned authorised representative for the revenue and perused the case rec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .Ltd,vs, /CC, Aiport ; 2017(3) ;TMI 447-Cestat Mumbai. (viii) Vinay Aggarwal vs. CC, Jaipur; 2016(4) TMI 970- Cestat Delhi (ix) CC vs. B. Dhananjayan; Final Order No. 42471/2021 dtd. 17.12.2021 (x) Mohammed Irfan Abdul K. Munshi vs. CC; 2022(12)TMI 485-Cestat Mumbai Out of the case laws cited above, sr. Nos.(i) to (v) were also cited before the learned Commissioner but were discarded without any discussions by merely terming them as 'not relevant'. Here I like to point out that the authorities below were also under an obligation to act judiciously and they are (in particular learned Commissioner) not justified in brushing aside the case laws cited by the appellants in support of their submissions without any discussions by merely ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
