Puja Jayant & Ors. Vs Commissioner of Customs (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court, while hearing a petition filed by Puja Jayant & Ors., took serious notice of an allegation of forged Customs Department stamps on the petitioners’ representations and directed the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police to conduct an inquiry at the Customs Department, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI). The petitioners, who were intercepted with gold jewelry upon arrival from Dubai, sought the release of their seized items or, after disposal, a refund, challenging a refund order passed on the grounds of limitation. The Customs Department, however, argued that two crucial representations filed by the petitioners—one requesting not to dispose of the jewelry and another for its redemption—carried fake stamps and were therefore not genuine. This claim was disputed by the petitioners, who contended that the inaccessible location of the Customs counter inside the airport constrained passengers to submit representations via staff members, who would then return them with a stamp.
The court acknowledged the difficulty faced by passengers, noting that the Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Refund) confirmed the absence of an accessible counter outside the airport for submitting documents. The High Court criticized the Customs Department for providing insufficient access to passengers and referenced a previous order where it had directed the department to make its processes more citizen-friendly by establishing an information counter. Furthermore, the court highlighted that the petitioners had succeeded in the original adjudication order (Order-in-Original dated May 1, 2023), which had permitted the re-export of the goods. Despite this favorable order, the seized gold was disposed of on May 15, 2023. The court noted that the Customs Department would likely be liable to pay the market value of the gold to the petitioners, citing a similar previous decision. To establish the facts, the court ordered the Customs Department to file an affidavit detailing the methodology and realized value of the gold’s disposal, while also directing the petitioners to produce the original representations for verification by the EOW.
