Nikhil Garg S/o Vishnu Prasad Garg Vs Union of India And Anr. (Bombay High Court)
Bombay High Court dismissed two writ petitions challenging an Order-in-Original dated 3 September 2025 passed under the Customs Act, holding that the petitioners must exhaust the statutory appellate remedy available to them. The petitioners sought to bypass the appeal mechanism on the grounds that the proceedings were without jurisdiction, violated principles of natural justice, and that they were unable to comply with the mandatory pre-deposit requirement for filing an appeal.
The Court examined the plea of violation of natural justice, including allegations that the adjudicating authority had not considered the petitioners’ submissions and had rejected requests for cross-examination. Upon perusal of the impugned order, which ran into about 335 pages, the Court found that the adjudicating authority had considered the petitioners’ arguments and relevant documents. It held that this was not a case where the rule of exhaustion of alternative remedies could be bypassed, and that whether the final conclusions were correct was a matter to be tested in appeal.
The Court noted that the principal reason for invoking writ jurisdiction emerged later, namely the petitioners’ claim of inability to make the statutory pre-deposit. This plea was held to be unsupported by any material and raised only after the Court expressed dissatisfaction with the natural justice argument. The Court observed that the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 cannot be invoked to avoid statutory pre-deposit requirements.
