Case Law Details
Ahamed Gani Natchiar Vs Commissioner of Customs (CESTAT Chennai)
Appearances For Appellant: Ms. Shabnam Banu- Appearances For Respondent: Department Representative- Joint Commissioner
CESTAT directs Customs Authorities to return confiscated gold to Foreign National- lack of evidence and flimsy investigation by the authorities. Held that in the absence of ‘intent to conceal’ cannot be construed as smuggled.
This appeal arose before The Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) challenging on the absolute confiscation of 626 grams of gold jewellery that belonged to the Appellant, a resident of Malaysia, under Sections 111(d) and 111(l) of the Customs Act, 1962 and imposition of penalty under Section 112(a) of the same Act by the customs authorities. The appellant was intercepted at the Airport and was interrogated and gold jewellery was seized.
The Hon’ble Madras High Court vide an Order directed the tribunal to dispose of matter at the earliest and a special bench was constituted. The Hon’ble bench clarified that the notion of “baggage” in the instant case is highly misplaced as it does not apply to the present case and therefore held the Respondent’s argument to be untenable. It is pertinent to bring to light here that this novel question of law has been earlier dealt only by the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala and this is one of the very few cases in the country wherein the legal question pertaining to what constitutes baggage is being dealt with by a Tribunal.
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