Jyoti Balasundaram, Member (J)

1. The above application under Section 129E of the Customs Act, 1962 seeks waiver of pre-deposit of duty of Rs. 7,29,023.05 and penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs levied imposed by the order of the Addl. Collector of Customs, upon caps manufactured out of synthetic woollen rags exported in contravention of the export policy and DEEC Scheme, under which the goods for export should have been manufactured out of 100% acrylic fibre imported by the applicants.

2. We have heard Shri B.B. Gujral, learned counsel for the applicant and Shri Rajesh Dhingra, learned SDR for the Department.

3. The main thrust of the argument is that the principles of natural justice have been flagrantly violated in as much as the valuable right of cross-examination of witnesses whose opinions reports have been relied upon by the Department, has not been afforded to the applicants, in spite of several requests in writing in this regard. Our attention has been drawn to the reply to the show cause notice, handed over at the time of, personal hearing, to several other letters, forming the correspondence on the subject. The learned advocate also contends that there is a strong prime fa