P. C. BOROOAH, J.

( 1 ) IN or about August 1978 the petitioners in these three Rules imported consignments of Soda Ash of light variety from Rumania for their use in their factories for the manufacture of Sodium Silicate. On arrival of the goods at the port of Calcutta, the goods were not immediately cleared for home consumption, but were kept in a bonded warehouse without payment of any duty thereon under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. Thereafter parts of the consignments were cleared by the three petitioners on payment of the relevant customs duty chargeable on the relevant date.

( 2 ) ON January 4, 1979 the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue issued two Notifications under Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereinafter 'the Act') exempting Soda Ash of both the light and dense varieties from the payment of certain portion of the Customs Duty and the whole of the auxiliary duty leviable under Sub-section (1) of Section 35 of the Finance Act. Copies of these two Notifications are annexures 'a' and 'b' to the petition in the three cases.

( 3 ) THEREAFTER the petitioners applied to the Customs Authorities for clearance of the balance of the goods from the bonded warehouses for home consumption under the provisions of Section 68 of the Act claiming the benefit of the two Notifications dated January 4, 1979. When the Customs Authorities declined to give the petitioners the benefit of the said Notifications and demanded the full Customs Duty and the auxiliary duty chargeable, they came up before this Court and obtained the present Rules, and by virtue of the interim orders cleared the goods by furnishing the requisite Bank guarantees.

( 4 ) THE common question which arises for consideration in these three Rules is whether the petitioners will get the benefit of the two Notifications dated January 4, 1979 ? Mr. R. N. Bajoria, appearing on behalf of the petitioners, has contended that the words 'imported into India' occurring in the Notifications refers to the time when the imported goods actually crossed the Customs barrier "and were mingled with and formed part and parcel of the property of the local area, and by virtue of Section 15 (l) (b) of the Act the rate of duty which his clients are liable to pay for the balance of the goods, which were cleared pursuant to the Court's order, is the duty which was chargeable on the date when the goods were actually removed from the bonded warehouses. Mr. Bajoria in support of his argument has relied on two decisions of the Madras High-Court, viz. K. R. Ahmed Shah v. Additional Collector of Customs, Madras and Ors. , reported in 1981 E. L. T. 153 and K. Jainal Co. v. Union of India, reported in the same journal at page 162. Mr. Bajoria has also drawn my attention to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Empress Mills, Nagpur v. Municipal Committee, Wardha, which has also been referred to in the first Madras decision mentioned above.

( 5 ) MR. Anwar Hossain, appearing on behalf of the Respondents, has contended that the words 'imported into India' mean crossing of the territorial waters of India and the goods having crossed such waters prior to the 4th of January, 1979, the petitioners cannot be given the benefit of the two Notifications. Mr. Hossain further submitted that the Notifications in any event cannot apply to the goods in question which have been warehoused after having been removed from the hold of the ship.

( 6 ) CUSTOMS duty is levied in accordance with Section 12 (1) of the Act which reads as follows :"except as otherwise provided in this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, duties of customs shall be levied at such rates as may be specified under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975) or any other law for the time being in force on goods imported into, or exported from India". It is thus seen that Customs duty at the specified rates is leviable, inter alia, on goods imported into India. The question which arises for consideration is, what

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