Use of imported car by some one else is a ground for forfeiting the car.

This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for issue of an appropriate writ to quash the order, dated 5th April, 1961 of the Collector of Customs Madras, directing confiscation of the petitioner’s Chevrolet 1959 Model motor car bearing registration No. S.S. 7955 and imposing on him a penalty of Rs.1,000 under section 167 (8) of the Sea Customs Act, 1878. The petitioner is said to be the Chief Executive of the Indian division in film business of Shaw Brothers, Ltd., Singapore. With a British passport the petitioner, apparently for business purpose, arrived in this country from Singapore and left on more than one occasion during the period from September, 1959 to October, 1960. For his use during his visits to Madras, he imported his car on 24th September, 1959 by S. S. Rajula under cover of Carnet de passages en douane, dated 21st August, 1959 and issued by the Automobile Association of Singapore. The import was under the provisions of the Customs Convention on the temporary importation of private road vehicles. This is an International Convention adopted by the United Nations Conference on Road and Motor Transport held at Geneva in 1949 and the object of the Convention is to facilitate development of international touring. The Indian Republic is one of the signatories to this Convention. Under its provisions importation of motor vehicles is permitted, subject to certain terms and conditions, without payment of import duties and import taxes and free of import prohibitions and restrictions. One of such conditions is that import permit shall be valid for a period not exceeding a year from the date of issue and that on the expiry of the period, the vehicle should be exported from the country of import. The petitioner, therefore, exported his car from Madras to Singapore on August 19, 1960. But he again, under cover of similar temporary importation papers, imported the same car in Madras by S. S. State of Madras on September 21, 1960. The petitioner himself cleared the car from the customs, he having arrived at Madras on August 13, 1960. On October 4, 1960, he left for Singapore by Air leaving the car in the custody of one N. Ramachar who is said to be the Chief Representative in India of Shaw Brothers, Ltd. On December 2, 1960 the car was produced by Ramachar accompanied by a representative of Messrs. Thomas Cook &38; Son, Madras, before the Customs Authorities for export to Singapore under a shipping bill, dated November 28, 1960. Finding that the car had been imported into this country by the petitioner under the Triptyque System, the Customs Authorities, on suspicion, instituted an investigation as a result of which they found that the petitioner was in India only for about three months during the period from September 24, 1959 to August 19, 1960 and for about 22 days between the period from September 24, 1960 to October 4, 1960 and that during his absence, the car was in the custody of Ramachar during both the periods. Following an enquiry, the Collector of Customs found that the car had been used by Ramachar and certain others who were by no means persons normally resident outside India and that the petitioner had thereby violated the Triptyque Regulations and forfeited his right to the Triptyque concession. At the enquiry it further emerged that during the relevant periods, the car had covered a running distance of 9,000 and 800 miles respectively and that its two shock absorbers were also removed without the knowledge and express permission of the Customs from the car on the ground that they were damaged. The actual operative part of the order issued by the Collector of Customs does not however, refer to the shock absorbers.

The order of the Collector of Customs is impugned by the petitioner on two grounds: (1) that the use of the car by Ramachar and certain others who are normally residents of this country is not a violation of the terms of the Convention and (2) that even if it is, it does not attrac