JUDGMENT

Deepak Gupta, J.

Leave granted.

2. These civil appeals filed by the Union of India and the Mumbai Port Trust are directed against the judgment dated 23.12.2016 passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh in CWP No. 10021 of 2016 and CWP No. 10036 of 2016, whereby the High Court allowed the writ petitions and held that the detention of the goods imported by the writ petitioners/importers (respondent-importers herein) by the Customs, at the instance of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (for short `DRI'), was totally illegal. The High Court directed that the goods imported by the respondent-importers be released to them on payment of custom duty. It further directed that the Port Trust was not entitled to charge any demurrage in view of Regulation 6(1) of the Handling of Cargo in Customs Areas Regulations, 2009 (in short `2009 Regulations') since the Customs had issued detention certificate. The detention charges demanded by the Shipping Line were ordered to be borne by the DRI and/or the Customs. The writ petitioners/importers were also held entitled to costs of Rs. 50,000/- each to be paid by the Department.

3. The facts of the case are that the respondent-