CUSTOMS, EXCISE & SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL NEW DELHI PRINCIPAL BENCH- COURT NO. I CUSTOMS APPEAL No. 58373 of 2013 (Arising out of Order-in-Original No. 09/2013 dated 31.03.2013 passed by the Commissioner of Customs, ICD, Tughlakabad, New Delhi)

Nawal Kishore Singh .…Appellan H-346, Saurabh Vihar, Jaitpur Extn.

Badarpur New Delhi – 110 044 Versus Commissioner of Customs, .…Respondent ICD Tughalkabad New Delhi APPEARANCE Shri Archit Jindal, advocate for the appellant Shri Mukesh Kumar Shukla, authorised representative of the department CORAM : HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE DILIP GUPTA, PRESIDENT HON’BLE MR. P. V. SUBBA RAO, MEMBER (TECHNICAL)

Date of Hearing : 06.01. 2026 Date of Decision : 12.02.2026 FINAL ORDER NO’s. 50265/2026 JUSTICE DILIP GUPTA :

This appeal has been filed by Nawal Kishore Singh¹ to assail that portion of the order dated 31.03.2013 passed by the Commissioner ICD, TKD, New Delhi² that imposes a penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs on the appellant under section 112(a)(i) of the Customs Act, 1962³ for his acts of omission and commission in the smuggling of goods of foreign origin in collusion with Lokesh Garg, Kamal Sehgal and Krishan Kumar.

1 the appellant

2. the Commissioner

3. the Customs Act

2. The appellant, at the relevant time, was a G-Card holder of M/s Continental Cargo Services. It is stated that in January 2010 Lokesh Garg approached the appellant and requested him to do his miscellaneous work relating to submission of documents before the customs authorities and the appellant was paid charges for this work. According to the appellant, only in view of the request made by Lokesh Garg he helped Krishan Kumar, a G-Card holder of M/s Cargo Placement and Shipping Agencies in filing the Bill of Entry. The appellant further claims that he did not carry out any clearance of the consignment and that he had no knowledge or prior intimation of the alleged misdeclaration done by the importer.

3. A show cause notice dated 03.02.2011 was issued to number of persons, including the appellant. Paragraph 77 of the show cause notice that concerns the appellant is reproduced below :

“77. Investigation revealed that Shri N.K. Singh, G Card holder of M/s Continental Cargo Services has in his statement dated 12.03.2010 has admitted that he was filing Bills of Entry for the imports made in the firms owned by Shri Lokesh Garg; he had collected the import documents from Lokesh Garg, filled the Annexures for submitting in CMC got the check list signed from Sh. Krishan Kumar. Thus he has been the part of the organized group to help out in illegal import made by Shri Lokesh Garg and Manish Jalhotra. From the above, it appears that Shri N.K. Singh has filed to maintain proper conduct in transaction of business as a G-Cardholder of Custom House Agent and Shri Bhupinder Singh appears to have failed to perform duty to exercise such supervision as may be necessary to ensure the proper conduct of his employees in terms of Regulation 19 of Customs House Agents License Regulations, 2004. Thus he has abetted in smuggling of foreign origin and rendered himself liable to penalty under Section 112 of Customs Act, 1962.”

[emphasis supplied]

4. A perusal of the aforesaid show cause notice would indicate that the allegations against the appellant are based on the statement made on 12.03.2010 by the appellant under section 108 of the Customs Act.

5. The Commissioner has imposed penalty upon the appellant under section 112(a)(i) of the Customs Act and the relevant portion of the order against the appellant is contained in paragraph 164 of the impugned order which is reproduced below :

“(164)d. I have seen the statement of Shri NK. Singh recorded on 12.03.2010 under section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 wherein he inter-alia stated that his CHA firm was clearing the consignments belonging to Shri Lokesh Garg in the name of importers i.e. M/s Raj International, M/s D.P. Enterprises and M/s Jai Sales Organization; that he was filing the Bills of Entry in respect of above named