Judgment

BEG, J.:- The Collector of Customs, Madras, has come up, by grant of special leave to appeal, against the judgment of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court quashing an order of the Central Government which confirmed an order of the appellant confiscating a large quantity of sewing machine needles,. The respondent had imported the needles under a licence which did not, according to the case of the Customs Department, cover the goods imported. A learned Single Judge of the High Court had set aside a penalty of Rs. 5,000/- imposed upon the respondent as the sewing needles imported by the petitioner-respondent were not, according to the learned Judge, proved to belong to the prohibited class, but the confiscation order had, rather inconsistently, been maintained. On an appeal by the respondent against the refusal to quash the confiscation order, the Division Bench of the Madras High Court came to the conclusion that there was no prohibition at all as contemplated by S. 3 of the Import Control Order, 1955, made under Sections 3 and 4A of the Imports & Exports (Control) Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ), so that no further question need be considered. The Divis