2023 (10) TMI 13
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....Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs: "(A) That Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order directing Respondent No. 2 to finally assess 10 shipping bills (listed at Annexure-"B", i.e. B1 to B5) thereby making an order under Section 51 of the Customs Act, permitting clearance and loading of the goods covered under these shipping bills for exportation of 13,500 MTs of Non-Basmati Rice on board vessel M.V. KEN COLON; (B) Pending hearing and final disposal of the present Petition. Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the Respondent No. 2 and concerned Custom Officers of Kandla Customs subordinate to Respondent No. 2, to forthwith allow export of the Petitioners' cargo of 13.500 MTs of Non-Basmati Rise by issuing LEOs on shipping bills (listed at Annexure-"B". i.e. B1 to B5) thereby permitting clearance and loading of the export goods on board vessel M.V. KEN COLON, and to grant Port Clearance (PC) for vessel M.V. KEN COLON to sail from Kandla Port with the Petitioner's cargo of entire 55,000 MTs of Non-Basmati Rice." 4. By this petition the petitioners have challen....
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....6 out of 46 shipping bills, prior to issuance of notification NO. 20 of 2023 read with notification no. 29 of 2023, the respondent No. 2-Custom authority allowed export of the same, however Let Export Orders were not issued for the quantity of 13,500 metric tons for remaining ten shipping bills which were filed before the notification but export duties was paid after the notification was issued. 13. The reason for not allowing the export of remaining 13,500 metric tons of rice is stated by the respondent no. 2 that condition no.(ii) of para no. 2 of the notification no. 20 of 2023 was not satisfied because the vessel did not arrive at Kandla Port on 20.07.2023. 14. It is the case of the petitioners that the petitioners were supposed to export the cargo of 13,500 metric tons of Non-Basmati Rice through vessel M.V. KEN COLON. Learned advocate Mr. Dave submitted that the vessel M.V.KEN COLON arrived at Kandla Port on 11.07.2023 for discharging cargo of coal which was imported by some other party and took berth and rotation number was allotted to the said vessel by the Port Authority. After discharging the cargo of 30,000 metric tons of coal at Kandla Port, the vessel sailed to Bhavn....
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....ioner has prayed for directing the Respondent Authority to pass order under section 51 of the Customs Act, permitting clearance and loading of goods being 13,500 MT's of Non-Basmati Rice on Board vessel MV KEN COLON. (8) At the outset it is submitted that in so far as the shipping bills of 13,500 MT's of Non-Basmati Rice are concerned, none of the exceptions provided in the Notification No. 20/2023 dated 20/7/2023 shall apply and consequently because of the Revised Export Policy, the concerned goods are now prohibited for export. (9) The Petitioner has submitted that that condition (1) of para 2 was satisfied. Condition is of para 2 reads as follows: "Where the shipping bill is filed and vessel have already arrived and anchored in Indian ports and their rotation number has been allocated before this notification. The approval of loading in such vessel will be issued only after confirmation by the concerned Port authorities regarding anchoring/ birthing of the ship for loading Non-basmati rice pnor to the Notification." (10) As per Port Authorities the vessel arrived on 26th July 2023 for loading of rice in bags whereas condition no.(ii) of Para 2 of Notification....
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....already berthed or arrived and anchored in Indian ports and their rotation number has been allocated before this Notification; The approval of loading in such vessels will be issued only after confirmation by the concerned Port Authorities regarding anchoring/berthing of the ship for loading of Non-basmati rice prior to the Notification: iii. where Non-basmati rice consignment has been handed over to the Customs before this Notification and is registered in their system / where Non-basmati rice consignment has entered the Customs Station for exportation before this Notification and is registered in the electronic systems of the concerned Custodian of the Customs Station with verifiable evidence of date and time stamping of these commodities having entered the Customs Station prior to 20.07.2023. The period of export shall be upto 31.08.2023. iv. Export will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Government of India to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their Government." 22. We are concerned with the condition no. (ii) of para no. 2 of the notification which provides that where the shipping bill is filed and the vesse....