The findings in the adjudication proceedings are binding on the criminal proceedings under the Customs Act and the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947.

( 1 ) BY this common judgement, I propose to dispose of four petitions being CRL. R. 157/ 2002 titled Sh. Subhash Chander Wadhwa v. Neeraj Garg, CRL. R. 271/2002 titled parvesh Kumar Gujral v. Neeraj Garg, Deepak Kausbal v. Neeraj Garg titled 272/2002 and CRLM (M) 1132/2002 titled R. K. Goenka v. Collector of Customs and Another, as all raise a common question for consideration namely whether the prosecution launched by the department against the petitioners under section 132 and 135 (1) (a) of the Customs Act and imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947 can/should continue even after they have been exonerated by the department in adjudication proceedings.

( 2 ) BRIEFLY narrated the facts leading to petition No. CRLM (M) 1132/2002 are that the petitioner No. 1 Mr. R. K. Goenka as proprietor of M/s. Mirah Decore had imported a consignment of decorative paper for laminate in 1987 from Singapore. They had filed yellow bill of entry dated 1. 8. 87 at ICD New Delhi for clearance of goods i. e. decorative paper for laminate through its agents, M/s Om International New Delhi of which the petitioner No. 2 is the Director. The clearance was sought under REP Import License No. P/l/3149498/c/zz/ 02/q/86/c 11 1 dated 9 1086 The bill of entry was marked to Superintendent (CFS) for examination of goods with the direction to send the goods to the assessing officer The goods were examined at CFS on 19 8 87 and samples were drawn in the presence of CHA and the Importer On 2481987, Assistant Collector (ICD) received information that the goods declared as Decorative paper for Laminates were not as per declaration He therefore ordered 100% examination of the goods on 25887 in the presence of the importer, CHA, Superintendent (ICD) and Superintendent (CFS) Two cartons containing 10 samples/catalogue books for wall paper were found which had not been mentioned in the wrapper The labels found on the goods clearly indicated that the goods were not decorative paper for laminates but were in fact wall paper The license produced by the importer did not cover importation of wall paper Import of any goods into Indian territory except under and in accordance with a valid import licence under clause 3 of Imports (Control) Order issued under section 3 and 4a of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947 which prohibitions by virtue of section 3 B ibid are deemed to have been imposed under section 11 of the Customs act, 1962 Accordingly, the entire goods were seized under section 110 of the Act under the reasonable belief that the same were liable to confiscation under section 111 of the Act A show cause notice in respect of adjudication proceeding was issued for mis-declaration of value of the goods and importing the goods without licence and adjudication order was passed by the Collector on 20 1288 against which an appeal was preferred to CEGAT petitioner approached the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No 4860/92 and the matter was remanded to the Tribunal for fresh consideration The matter was reconsidered by a special bench of the Tribunal which in its order dated 10 5 93 held as under

WE are of the view that the arguments of the learned SDR for placing reliance on the quotation are not really relevant to the issue for the purpose of proceedings in remand before the Tribunal Revenue has failed, as rightly pointed out by the learned advocate, to prove that the quotation in question relates to the period when the goods were imported Once the sole basis for revaluing the goods at a higher level by the Revenue goes away on the aforesaid ground, the only evidence that remains for the value of the goods is the invoice of the appellant Argument of the learned SDR to the effect that if the strength of Tribunal s two judgments in the cases of Shiv Shakti enterprise and photocopy Centre is not tenable Those judgments dealt with misdeclaration regarding the description of the goods to an extent that the goods are totally different in character from the goo