The amendment to the Customs Act validating the authority of customs officers appointed before July 6, 2011 is constitutionally permissible and retroactively applies to prior adjudications.

1. By this writ petition, under Art.226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner is seeking following reliefs :
"(a) The hon'ble Supreme Court may be pleased issue appropriate writ, order or directions for setting aside the impugned show - cause notice No. DRI / MZU / E / 1/2008, dated February 5, 2009 in view of the fact that respondent No. 3 is not a 'proper officer' in terms of S.2(34) of the Act and, therefore, the notice as well as the entire adjudication proceedings are non est, otiose, nugatory, null and void ab initio as held by this hon'ble court in ' Commissioner of Customs v. Sayed Ali (2011) 7 GSTR 338 (SC); 2011 (3) SCC 537 '.
(b) That this hon'ble court may further be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or directions, declaring the amendment to S.28 of the Customs Act, 1962 by inserting clause (11), whereby, it provided 'all persons appointed as officers of Customs under sub- section (1) of S.4 before the sixth day of July, 2011 shall be deemed to have and always had the power of assessment under S.17 and shall be deemed to have been and always had been the proper officers for the purposes of this section' to be ultra vires and unconstitutional as the said amendment is violative of Art.14, Art.19 and Art.21 of the Constitution of India.
(c) That this hon'ble court may further be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order of directions for setting aside Circular No. F. No. 437/143/2009 - Cus. - IV, dated September 23, 2011, whereby, in terms of the amended S.28 of the , directions have been issued to the relevant authorities that 'show - cause notice issued prior to July 6, 2011 by officers of customs, which would include officers of the Commissionerates of Customs (Preventive), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence and similarly placed officers stand validated since these officers are retrospectively recognised as "proper officers" for the purpose of S.17 and S.28 of the said act' as the amendment supra on the basis of which the impugned circular has been issued, itself is ultra vires and unconstitutional..."

2. The background, in which these reliefs are sought, is that the petitioner was served with a show - cause notice by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. This was pursuant to an investigation which was conducted. We are not concerned in this case with the fundamental rights guaranteed to the petitioner under Art.21 of the Constitution of India. We are concerned in this case with a adjudication and which is subject matter of the Customs Act, 1962 . This show - cause notice, copy of which has been annexed to the writ petition, alleges that the petitioner has been associated with the firms which are styled as dummy firms. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that certain goods were imported in the names of these firms. They have been misdeclared in terms of description, quantity and value. The goods were seized. Then, there is reference to six more similar consignments, which were lying at the air cargo complex, Sahar, Mumbai and it has been revealed that these consignments and those earlier imported were brought in without compliance with the . There are serious violations alleged and of this enactment. The petitioner's role has been also set out and in somewhat details. The petitioner is stated to be owner of M/s. S. G. V. Industries. A statement was recorded of one Manish Amlani, partner of M/s. S. K. D. Shipping Agency, a customs house agent. The reference to all these materials is to