Case Law Details
Qatar Airways Vs Commissioner of Customs (Air) (Madras High Court)
Conclusion: Since there was total or near total disruption of work due to alleged arrest of the customs officers and therefore, the delay in receiving and processing of transshipment application should not be at the cost of the Qatar Airways and assessee was not liable for demurrages and transshipment charges by Air Port Authority of India
Held: Assessee-an international airlines company engaged in transportation of goods and passengers, had been issued with demurrages and transshipment charges by the Air Port Authority of India, Air Cargo Complex, Chennai. for delay in transshipping the cargo brought by them for being transshipped to Trivandrum International Airport during the period between 26.11.2009 and 13.12.2009. Since there was no facility for landing of such aircrafts in Trivandrum, assessee brought the cargo in these aircrafts to the Chennai International Airport for being transshipped to Trivandrum/Calicut by road. The case of assessee was that assessee attempted to file application for transshipment of cargo to Trivandrum which had arrived by Flight. However, the Customs Department delayed in receiving transhipment application and in completing the transshipment formalities and as a result of which there was delay and therefore assessee had been visited with additional burden of transshipment and demurrage charges by the Airport Authority of India. Assessee requested to issue of “Detention Certificate” to claim waiver / remission from payment of demurrage charges. It was held that though, it was not the case of the abuse by the officers of the Customs, there were sufficient indications to show that there was a complete disruption of service at the Air Cargo Complex during the relevant period due to alleged arrest of the officers. In absence of the officers to receive the transshipment application, there could have been total disruption and no application was received which perhaps might have led to the delay. If there were no proper officers or there were only few officers to handle the workload due to alleged arrest and the delay in receiving the transshipment application for being processed should not be at the cost of assessee. If indeed there was a complete breakdown due to alleged arrest and resulted in disruption of the operations at the Air Cargo Complex, assessee should be compensated as such delay could not be attributed by assessee. Assessee had therefore established that there was total or near total disruption of work due to alleged arrest of the customs officers and therefore, there was delay in receiving and processing of transshipment application and therefore assessee was entitled to compensation.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT
In this Writ Petition, the petitioner has challenged the impugned communication dated 10.03.2010 bearing reference F.No.S.Misc.22/2009-(T.S.) ACC, passed by the 1st respondent Commissioner of Customs (Air).
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