Goods imported contrary to a prohibition imposed by law are liable for confiscation under Section 111(d) of the Customs Act.

These petitions coming on for orders as to admission on this day upon perusing the petition and the affidavit filed in support thereof the order of the High Court and made herein and.............. and upon hearing the arguments of Mr. Habibullah Badsha for M/s D.A. Stewart and M.A. Kalam, Advocates for the petitioner and of Mr. P. Narasimhan, Central Govt. Standing Counsel for the respondents 1 to 6 and others Mr. Sriramulu Special Prosecutor for (SPE) Cases for the 4th respondent, and having stood over for consideration till this day the Court made the following order :

All these three writ petitions can be dealt with under a common order, since the writ petitioner in all the writ petitions is the same. The relief asked for in all the writ petitions is identical except that each of the petitions relates to different consignments.

2.The short facts are as follows :

One Messrs Continental Silk House, 47, 3rd Main Road, 4th Block, Rajaji Road, Bangalore, filed three bills of entry all dated 29th of September, 1986 for the clearance of 25 bales of mulberry silk in each case. The goods were imported by vessel 'VELENJI'. The vessel arrived on 27-9-1986. Messrs. Jeena & Co., the clearing agents of M/s. Continental Silk House filed these three bills of entry for the clearance of 25 bales of mulberry raw silk of China origin on behalf of M/s. Continental Silk House, Bangalore (the importers). The value of each of the consignments was declared as Rs. 3, 43, 651/-, Rs. 3, 45, 910/- and Rs. 3, 45, 792/- on the strength of the invoices raised by Messrs. Brightex (H.K.) Corporation in their favour. Both the importer and the Customs House Agent subscribed to a declaration as to the truth of the contents in the bills of entry as provided for under Section 41(2) of the Customs Act of 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the 'ACT'). On the strength of the bills of entry, the goods were inspected and the sampling was also done. Meanwhile, information was received by respondents 1 to 5 that the said importer was not in existence, and that the licence had been obtained by fraud and misrepresentation on the strength of fabricated documents. Therefore, the Joint Chief Controller of Imports and Exports issued a show cause notice to the said Importer and the same was not served since there was no such company in the address given. Consequently, the Joint Chief Controller of Imports and Exports conducted an enquiry and also cancelled the Licence given to the said Importer. Besides, a First Information Report was lodged and the C.B.I. was entrusted with the task of investigation. Accordingly the investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation was taken up and was being proceeded with. While the matter stood thus, a show cause notice was issued to the said M/s. Continental Silk House, as to why the goods imported should not be confiscated under the Act. The case is pending adjudication by the Collector of Customs. Meanwhile, the writ petitioner through its advocate Mr. L.V. Balani requested the Customs Department to allow the petitioner to file the bills of entry for clearance. The petitioner's clearing agents M/s. Srinivasa Mudaliar & Brothers filed one bill of entry. It was then noticed by the Customs Department that a bill of entry filed already by M/s. Jeena & Co., the clearing agents of M/s. Continental Silk House had not been processed yet. The other two bills of entry filed by the clearing agent of the writ petitioner were refused by the respondents since similar bills of entry had already been filed and the adjudication proceedings were in progress. Under these circumstances, the Department has sent a reply to Mr. L.V. Balani by letter dated 31-3-1987 under Registered post with acknowledgment due giving reasons for not noting the bills of entry filed by the petitioner.

3.It also requires to be noticed that by proceedings dated 18th of March 1987, the Joint Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, after satisfying himself that the licenc