( 1. ) PETITIONER No. 1 in this petition is a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, and petitioner No. 2 is a shareholder of that company. The company is inter-alia engaged in the manufacture of different types of asbestos cement products. For the manufacture of the said products, the company uses raw asbestos fibre (non-combustible) which is imported from abroad. The company has its factories at Kymore in Madhya Pradesh. The Company was granted a licence on 25th March 1977 under Section 58 (1) of the Customs Act, 1962 for having a private bonded warehouse at Kymore wherein the imported raw asbestos fibre was stored without payment of duty subject to the conditions set out in the licence. The licence was to remain in force for one year but under Clause 7 of the conditions attached to it the company was permitted to apply for renewal of the same. The licence was renewed from time to time and the last renewal was granted on 24th November 1981 for the period from 1st January 1982 to 31st December 1982. By a notice dated 18th September 1982 purporting to have been issued under Section 58 (2) (a) of the Act, the Assistant Collector, Central Excise (Divisio