Sudipta Bose Vs Union of India & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
In a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner challenged an order dated July 22, 2025 passed by the Additional Commissioner of Customs (Export), Kolkata Customs, imposing a penalty of Rs.50 lakh under Section 114(iii) of the Customs Act, 1962. The matter arose out of five shipping bills filed for export of goods declared as energy drinks. During examination, Customs found several irregularities, including stark disparity between the printed price on the goods and the value declared in the shipping bills, discrepancies in labeling, differences between declared and actual gross weight, and indications that the goods were grossly overvalued. Customs also found that one category of drinks did not conform to prescribed food safety standards, while manufacturers’ price information suggested that the declared FOB value was significantly higher than the wholesale price, leading to suspicion of an attempt to claim higher export incentives.
The petitioner, a customs broker, was issued a show cause notice on allegations that he had failed to exercise due diligence by accepting export documents from an unauthorized intermediary without further verifying the genuine existence of the exporter, and that he failed to advise the exporter to comply with legal requirements under the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations, 2018. The petitioner denied wrongdoing, contending that the assignment was accepted in the routine course of business after verifying KYC documents, including authorization letter, customer information sheet, cancelled cheque, PAN card, and GST registration certificate. He also maintained that valuation of export goods was beyond the scope of a customs broker’s obligations and that any misdeclaration in shipping documents could only be attributed to the exporter.
