Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. Vs Union of India & Ors. (Bombay High Court)
The petitioner is a leading company engaged in shipping business. An investigation was carried out in 1997 for alleged mis-declaration of import of GDSS parts. The importer M/s Sanghvi Re-conditioners paid duty under protest in 1999. However, a show cause notice came to be issued on 28.03.2002 proposing demand of duty and imposition of penalties. The petitioner was a co-noticee. The said show cause notice was sought to be adjudicated in 2023. Hence, a writ petition came to be filed.
The Hon’ble Bombay High Court has set aside the show cause notice and allowed the writ petition.
It held:
(i) there is a gross delay of over 20 years in adjudication of the show cause notice;
(ii) no delay can be attributed to the petitioner for the said delay;
(iii) rejects Revenue’s contention that there is a delay on part of the petitioner in approaching the court;
(iv) the petitioner was prompted to approach the court after receipt of notice for hearing in 2023;
(v) there is no reason for not following the ratio laid down in the case of co-noticee (M/s Sanghvi Re-conditioner and M/s Reliance Industries) where the same show cause notice was quashed by the court in 2017 and 2019 qua the co-noticees;
(vi) the fact that the matter was kept in call book due to pendency of a matter before the Supreme Court in another assessee case (A. S. Moolbhai) was not informed to the petitioner is fatal; despite section 28(9) of the Customs Act;
(vii) follows the decision in the case of Bhushan Vora and allows the petition.
The matter was argued by Ld. Counsel Bharat Raichandani along with Mahesh Raichandani and Senior Associate Jasmine Dixit
