THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.SAM KOSHY AND THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE NARSING RAO NANDIKONDA W.P.No.10720 OF 2025 ORDER : (per Hon’ble Sri Justice P.Sam Koshy)

Heard Mr. Vedula Srinivas, learned Senior Counsel representing Ms. Vedula Chitralekha, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. Dominic Fernandes, learned Senior Standing Counsel for CBIC for respondent No.1. Perused the record.

2. The present is a writ petition which has been filed seeking for an appropriate direction to the respondents in the nature of Mandamus to principally comply with the directions so given by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), Eastern Zonal Bench, Kolkata dated 18.03.2025 in batch of customs appeals, the lead case of which is Customs Appeal No.75358 of 2024 and batch matters.

3. The matter pertains to recovery of gold ornaments weighing around 50 kgs from the petitioners on 04.04.2018. The authorities of the DRI subsequently had issued show cause proceedings on

29.03.2019 so far as seizure of the gold jewellery is concerned. The petitioners submitted their reply to the same on 31.07.2023 and the adjudicating authority passed an order whereby the seized jewellery was confiscated in favour of the Government with an option that was granted to the petitioners herein to redeem the same upon payment of redemption fine of Rs.80 lakhs and penalty of Rs.19 lakhs. Aggrieved by the said order, the department as also the petitioners has preferred respective appeals. The department had challenged this order of the adjudicating authority alleging that the redemption fine and the penalty imposed was on the lower side and on the contrary the petitioners have challenged the same alleging that the redemption fine and the penalty imposed was exorbitant. It is this batch of appeals which stood decided by the order of the CESTAT on 18.03.2025 whereby the appeals of the petitioners were taken up together and disposed of by partly allowing the prayers of the petitioners to the extent that the redemption fine imposed got reduced from Rs.80 lakhs to Rs.15 lakhs and the penalty amount of Rs.19 lakhs got reduced to Rs.3,45,000/-. The Tribunal further ordered that upon payment of the said amount of redemption fine and the penalty, the gold jewellery seized from the possession of the petitioners be released to the petitioners. For ready reference, the operative part of the Tribunal order is being reproduced herein as under:

“39. In the result, we pass the following order: -

(i) We uphold the order of confiscation of the consignment of 1194 pcs of gold bangles weighing 54096 gms. having an ascertained value of Rs.16,10,43,792/- cleared by diversion of the consignment in the domestic area, under Section

113(k) of the Customs Act, 1962.

(ii) We impose a redemption fine of Rs.15,00,000/- (Rupees Fifteen Lakhs only) under Section 125 of the Act for redemption of the goods confiscated on account of diversion of the export consignment.

(iii) The penalties imposed on Shri Sanjay Agarwal, Shri Preet Kumar Agarwal and Shri Avinash Soni under Section 114(iii) of the Customs Act, 1962 stand reduced to Rs.2,00,000/- (Rupees Two Lakhs only), Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh only) and Rs.20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand only), as discussed in paragraph 35.1 of this Order.

(iv) The penalty of Rs.25,000/- (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) imposed on Shri Pallav Roy Chowdhury under Section 114(iii) of the Customs Act, 1962 is upheld.

(v) No penalty is imposable on the appellants/ exporters/notices under Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962, (vi) We order that the gold jewellery, which has been seized from the possession of Shri Sanjay Agarwal, is to be released to Shri Sanjay Agarwal on payment of redemption fine and penalties indicated at (ii) and (iii)

supra.

(vii) No proceedings are sustainable against the other noticees to the Show Cause Notice dated 29.03.2019 issued in this case.

40. In these terms, the appeals are disposed of.”

4. The present writ petition now has