Parveen Kumar Jain Vs Principal Commissioner of Customs (Import) (Delhi High Court)
Summary: The Delhi High Court disposed of a batch of six Customs Appeals and 41 writ petitions arising from a common investigation concerning alleged large-scale customs duty evasion through forged and manipulated licences/duty credit scrips used by importers of paper and paper articles at ICD, Tuglakabad during 2011–2015. Although CUSAA 178/2025 was treated as the lead matter for deciding the Customs Appeals and W.P.(C) 12233/2019 as the lead writ petition where required, the first matter appearing in the common judgment was CUSAA 82/2023 filed by Parveen Kumar Jain against the Principal Commissioner of Customs (Import), ICD, TKD, New Delhi.
The importers had discharged customs duty by utilising transferable scrips issued under export promotion schemes under the Foreign Trade Policy, including DFIA, FPS, FMS, VKGUY and DEPB. Investigation by Customs revealed alleged manipulation of the EDI/ICES system involving M/s Kirti Cargo, its G-Card holder Mr. Sharafat Hussain and Mr. Vinod Kumar Pathror. According to the investigation, values of genuine scrips were artificially enhanced, exhausted scrips were reused and, in some cases, non-existent scrips were entered in the system. Show cause notices consequently proposed recovery under Section 28(4) of the Customs Act, 1962, interest under Section 28AA, confiscation under Sections 111(d) and 111(o), and penalties under Sections 112(b)(ii), 114A and 114AA.
