( 1 )

( 2 ) WITH the consent of the parties the matter is taken up for final hearing and disposal.

( 3 ) THE petitioner has, inter alia, prayed for an appropriate direction to be issued to the respondents to register the Bill of Entry of the petitioner and to permit the petitioner to clear the goods represented by the said Bill of Entry. It has also, inter alia, prayed that a direction be issued to the respondents to issue a detention certificate for the waiver of demurrage charges.

( 4 ) THIS petition is concerned with the import of zinc ingots from Singapore. The petitioner, a public limited company, placed an order for 300 MTs of special high grade zinc from Allied Deals (S) Pvt. Ltd. , Singapore in March 2001. In response to the petitioner s said order, the said Allied Deals, Singapore offered to sell to the petitioner the said goods which had earlier been consigned to one Shiv Ganga Organic Chemicals Ltd on cash against delivery basis. The said Allied Deals, Singapore informed the petitioner that the said Shiv Ganga Organic Chemicals had not made any payment for the goods and the goods were already lying in the container depot, Tuglakabad. The goods, had been imported into India in February, 2001. The original documents including the Bills of Lading in respect of the said goods had also been returned by the Bank to the said Allied Deals, Singapore. The petitioner agreed to the proposal. The petitioner paid for the goods and the original Bills of Lading were endorsed by the supplier in favour of the petitioner.

( 5 ) BY a letter dated 23. 3. 2001 the petitioner applied to the Deputy Commissioner IGM (Import General Manifest) for a change in the name of the importer in the import general manifest. This application was necessitated because the original import general manifest had the name of the original consignee i. e. Shiv Ganga Organic Chemicals Limited. The Deputy Commissioner permitted the change in the name of the importer in the Import General Manifest. However, in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of respondents 1 to 3, it is stated that this permission for change the name of the importer was done as the Deputy Commissioner was not aware of the fact that the earlier consignee, i. e. Shiv Ganga Organic Chemical Ltd had already filed Bills of Entry against the said Import General Manifest. This aspect will be considered later. At this stage, it is relevant to note that no connection whatsoever had been established between the petitioner and the said Shiv Ganga Organic Chemicals Ltd.

( 6 ) THEREAFTER, the petitioner approached the Customs Authorities for registering the Bill of Entry in its name for clearance of the said imported zinc ingots from Singapore. The Customs Authorities refused to register the Bill of Entry on the intervention of the Department of Revenue Intelligence on the purported grounds that a Bill of Entry had already been filed by Shiv Ganga Organic Chemicals Ltd and the latter was involved in some customs offence case and investigations were going on in respect thereof. It is an admitted position that there was no restriction of import of zinc ingots, no allegation of under-valuation and the petitioner was through-out prepared to pay the full duty. However, the Bill of Entry was not registered in the name of the petitioner, treating the said goods as "offending goods"which were allegedly liable for confiscation. The reason for treating the said goods as offending goods indicated by the Respondents was that the goods were the subject matter of investigation and were, therefore, prima facie, offending in nature.

( 7 ) MR Asthana, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the goods were initially imported, as aforesaid sometime in February, 2001. The amendment of the Import General Manifest was sought in March, 2001 and was permitted by the Deputy Commissioner on 25. 3. 2001. The Bill of Entry for clearance of the goods under Section 46 of the Customs Act, 19