The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of the applicability of directives issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under Section 28(9A)(c) of the Customs Act, 1962.

JUDGMENT

Yashwant Varma, J. (Oral)

1. These four writ petitions raise an identical challenge to various show cause notices issued under Section 28(4) of the Customs Act, 1962 [the Act]. The notices are challenged primarily on the ground that since the period for completion of proceedings as prescribed in Section 28(9) of the Act has expired, the authorities would retain no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the same. Since the issues raised are common in all the four writ petitions, we propose to notice the essential facts as they obtain in Gautam Spinners only.

2. As would be evident from the record, a Show Cause Notice [SCN] dated 05 August 2021 came to be issued against the said petitioner in respect of five Bills of Entries. The aforesaid action appears to have been initiated in the backdrop of an investigation which was initiated by the Directorate General of Intelligence [DRI] and on the basis of inputs that had been received by it. Upon the issuance of the SCN, the petitioner discloses that the Assistant Commissioner of Customs apprised them that the competent authority had accorded due approval to keep adjudication proceedings pertaining to the said notice in abeyance and till further orders in light of the provisions made in Section 28(9A)(c) of the Act. According to the petitioner, the said information was provided to them on 21 March 2022. The SCN proceedings are thereafter stated to have been fixed for consideration on 09 December 2022. The petitioner appeared before the second respondent and filed their submissions on that date. The petitioner avers that their representative was again verbally informed by the second respondent that pending the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs [Board] deliberating upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in Canon India Private Limited v. Commissioner of Customs, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 200, an in-principle decision had been taken to keep all such SCNs' in abeyance.

3. On 12 December 2022, the petitioner drew the attention of the second respondent to the fact that the impugned SCN had in fact been issued by a Deputy Commissioner of Customs and thus clearly not impacted by what was ultimately held by the Supreme Court in Canon India. The contention specifically appears to have been that no legal impediment could be said to operate upon the jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner to take proceedings forward since the decision of the Supreme Court in Canon India could not be said to have cast a cloud on a proper officer of Customs exercising powers under Section 28(4) of the Act. Notwithstanding the aforesaid stand as struck by the petitioner, the respondents do not appear to have taken any further steps and it was in the aforesaid backdrop that the instant petition ultimately came to be filed before this Court sometime in January 2023.

4. The respondents in terms of the return which has been filed in these proceedings have essentially reiterated what was disclosed to the petitioner verbally by the Deputy Commissioner and has been alluded to in the writ petition. That stand of the respondent flows from two communications of the Board dated 17 March 2021 and 16 April 2021. Since those communications would have some bearing on the question which stands posited, they are extracted hereinbelow:

"Instruction No.04/2021-Customs

F. No.450/72/2021-Cus-IV
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs

Room No.227B, North Block, New Delhi

Dated the 17th of March, 2021.

To

Principal Additional Director General,

Directorate General of Intelligence (DRI),

New Delhi.

Sir,

Subject: Show Cause Notice (SCN) dated 19.03.2019 issued by DRI against Sh. Anil Aggarwal and 11 others - Directions to keep SCN pending - reg.

Reference is invited to the letters from your office drawing attention to the judgement dated 09.03.2021 of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 1827 of 2018 in the case of M/s Canon India Private Limited vs Commissioner of Cu