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1995 Supreme(SC) 647
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
BEFORE S.P. BHARUCHA, SUHAS C. SEN AND K.S. PARIPOORNAN, JJ.
COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, CALCUTTA
Versus
SANJAY CHANDIRAM
Civil Appeal No. 5411 of 1990
Decided on 5-5-1995
Appeal allowed
Advocates appeared:
V.C. Mahajan, Senior Advocate (P. Parameswaran, Advocate, with him) for the Appellant;
P.N. Misra, Advocate, for the Respondent.
P.N.MISHRA, P.PARMESHVARAN, V.C.MAHAJAN
Headnote:
Customs Act, 1962 - Section 112 - Section 14 - Imports and Exports Act, 1947 - Imported Goods - Origin Of Imported Goods - Invoicing Value Of Goods - Goods were detained by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Calcutta, on basis of information that importer was misdeclaring country of origin of imported goods and was under-invoicing value of goods - Sanjay Chandiram, Proprietor of M/s Shiv Shankar International, was summoned to appear for further investigation - Chandiram did not appear before Customs authority pursuant to summons, but moved High Court by way of writ petition challenging validity of proceedings – Held, Collector has done is to reject North Korean price of imported goods declared by importer in invoices because goods were found not to be of North Korean origin - He had thereafter taken into consideration prices of similar goods of three other countries - Japan, Taiwan and South Korea - and has taken the lowest amongst these as value of goods imported - Under Rule 8 of Customs Valuation Rules, 1988, value of imported goods may be determined "using reasonable means consistent with the principles and general provisions – Court is of view that in facts of this case, order passed by CEGAT was clearly erroneous - It took note of fact that certificates of origin produced by importer were not genuine and could not be relied upon and yet came to conclusion that price of goods must be of same place of origin as was claimed by importer – Appeal Allowed.
JUDGMENT
SEN, J.-
M/s Shiv Shankar International, 69/10, 72 Canning Street, Calcutta, imported the following four consignments of Zip Rolls from Singapore and filed four bills of entry in the Customs House, Calcutta, as follows:
(1) 8,00,000 yards of Zip Roll No. 5 CF type per vessel John Everett, Rot No. 692/89, Line No. 196, declared C.I.F. value RS 3,06,941. 52 against B/E No. 1236 dated 20-11-1989
(2) 7,60,000 yards of Zip Roll No. 5 CF type per vessel John Everett, Rot No. 692/89, Line No. 197, declared C.I.F. value Rs 2,91,594.44 against B/E No. 1237 dated 20-11 -1989.
(3) 8,00,000 yards of Zip Roll No. 5 CF type per vessel Calabar, Rot No. 687/89, Line No. 323, declared C.I.F. value Rs 3,06,911.52 against B/E No. 1654 dated 28-11-1989.
(4) 8,00,000 yards of Zip Roll No. 5 CF type per vessel Calabar, Rot No. 687/89, Line No. 324, declared C.I.F. value Rs 3,06,941.52 against B/E No. 1655 dated 28-11-1989.
2. The goods were detained by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Calcutta, on the basis of information that the importer was misdeclaring the country of origin of the imported goods and was under-invoicing the value of the goods. Sanjay Chandiram, Proprietor of M/s Shiv Shankar International, was summoned to appear for further investigation on 8-12-1989. Chandiram did not appear before the Customs authority pursuant to the summons, but moved the High Court by way of writ petition challenging the validity of the proceedings. There were various court proceedings. Ultimately, the matter reached this Court. By an order dated 3-1-1990, the Customs authority was directed to issue a show-cause notice within four weeks and to complete adjudication proceedings within a further period of three weeks thereafter.
3. A show-cause notice was issued by the Assistant Director, DRI, Zonal Unit, Calcutta, to the importer and also to M/s N.N. Bose and Nephew, their clearing agents.
4. It was alleged in the show-cause notice, inter alia:
"(1) That the said M/s S.S. International have produced forged country of origin certificates declaring the said goods under import to be of DPR Korea origin;
(2) that these certificates do not show the details of shipment such as marks and numbers, vessel name, weight, Bill of Lading particulars, etc.
(3) that the importers have produced these certificates with the intention of misleading Customs authorities regarding the real country of origin of the goods under import so that they could get their goods assessed at a very low value of US $ 2.28 C.I.F. per 100 yards;
(4) that the importers have tried to evade duty to the tune of Rs 1,24,62,949.53 by misdeclaring country of origin as DPR Korea and by claiming assessment on lower value;
(5) that the importers have produced import licences to cover importation of goods valued Rs 11,29,426 whereas they have imported goods worth Rs 75,40,386;
(6) that thus they have imported goods valued Rs 64,10,989 without the cover of any valid import licence;
(7) that they have manipulated import documents, submitted forged and incorrect certificates of origin, wilfully misdeclared value, did not submit the original copies of certificates of origin when asked to and thereby did not also cooperate in the investigation;
(8) that the claim of the importers to have purchased the goods from M/s Greenland Textiles Pte. Ltd., Singapore, who in turn claim to have purchased the same from M/s Korea Building National Exp. and Imp. Corporation are not acceptable as there are only 2 dealers in DPR Korea Zip Rolls in Singapore for South-East Asia and Far East, namely, M/s D & N Textiles and General Exporters and M/s Multimill Impex Singapore Pte. Ltd. who have been authorised by Korea Namyang Trading Corporation (DPR Korea);
(9) that on a reference to the Commercial Section, Embassy of the DPR Korea in the Republic of Singapore, the certificates of origin produced by the importers and purported to have been issued by the Korea Foreign Commodity Inspection Committee, Pyongyang, Korea, have been foun
