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Diksha Rane

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

WRIT PETITION NO. 5154 OF 2021

Kitchen Essentials & ors.

..Petitioners

vs.

The Union of India & ors.

..Respondents

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Mr. Devashish Trivedi i/b. Agrud Partners for petitioners.

Mr. P.S. Jetly, Senior Advocate a/w. Ms. Sangeeta Yadav for

respondents.

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CORAM : DIPANKAR DATTA, CJ &

M. S. KARNIK, J.

DATE : OCTOBER 26, 2021

P.C. :

1.

The petitioners’ challenge in this Petition is to an

order-in-appeal dated June 25, 2021 passed by the

Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) whereby, the order-in-

original dated December 20, 2019 passed by the Joint

Commissioner of Customs confirming the show cause

notice-cum-demand notice under Section 124 read with

Section 28 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred

to as ‘the said Act’ for short), is upheld.

2.

The petitioners are engaged in manufacture of

stainless steel utensils. They had imported Cold Rolled

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Stainless Steel (C.R. S.S.) flat products during the period

from September 7, 2017 to October 12, 2017 under

advance license by claiming the exemption benefits under

Notification No. 18/2015 - Cus. dated April 1, 2015 as

amended. The petitioners had imported two consignments

of Stainless Steel Coils which were supplied by a company

in China. The petitioners had declared before the Indian

Customs that “Country of Origin” in regard to both the

consignments to be ‘China’. Basic Customs Duty (BCD),

Customs Education Cess and Secondary and Higher

Education Cess were shown as “Nil” as per the availment of

Notification dated April 1, 2015 while generating Bill of

Entry. The import was permitted by the jurisdictional

customs officers. No dispute was raised by the proper

officer of the customs department. Bill of Entry dated

September 13, 2017 and September 21, 2107 were

generated by the proper officers of the customs department

and the petitioners were allowed to import the goods whilst

availing exemption benefit as aforesaid.

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3.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) vide its

letter dated November 2, 2017 (according to the petitioners

the DRI is not the proper officer of customs) asked the

petitioners to provide details of imports made by them

whilst availing benefit of aforesaid exemption notification.

Vide letters dated November 22, 2017 and November 27,

2017, the petitioners provided the required details to the

DRI. During the course of the investigation, as a gesture of

cooperation and abundant caution, the petitioners deposited

Rs. 23, 61,625/- towards CVD Exemption availed by them.

Further, amount of Rs.21,96,680/- and Rs.1,64,765/- came

to be deposited. The details of the payments made by the

petitioners were informed to the DRI.

4.

The DRI believes that CVD imposed on import of Flat

Rolled products of Stainless Steel (H.R. and C.R.)

originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of

China with effect from September 7, 2017 vide Notification

dated September 7, 2017 was not covered under the Head

“Details of Duties exempted from imports under Advance

Authorisation” in terms of para 4.14 of the FTP 2015-2020

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and also not included in the list of the duties exempted for

material imported into India against a valid advance

authorisation between September 7, 2017 to October 12,

2017. As a consequence, the respondent No.2 - Joint

Director, DRI, issued a show cause-cum-demand notice

under Section 124 read with Section 28 of the said Act

calling upon the petitioner No.1 to show cause as to why

CVD in terms of Notification No.1/2017-Cus (CVD) should

not be levied for the goods imported by the petitioners; why

CVD totally amounting to Rs.23,61,625/- should not be

demanded and recovered under the provisions of Section 28

of the s