Pardeep Kumar Prashar Vs Commissioner of Customs (Delhi High Court)
Summary: The Delhi High Court dismissed CUSAA 75/2025 filed by Pardeep Kumar Prashar against Final Order No. 58517/2024 dated 27.08.2024 passed by the CESTAT, Principal Bench, New Delhi. The CESTAT had dismissed the Appellant’s appeal and upheld the Order-in-Original dated 02.08.2021 by which his Customs Broker licence was revoked, the entire security deposit of Rs.75,000/- was forfeited and a penalty of Rs.50,000/- was imposed under the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations, 2018 (CBLR, 2018). The judgment was pronounced by the Delhi High Court on 21.08.2026.
The proceedings arose from an attempted export under Shipping Bill No. 8904827 dated 12.12.2019, filed in the name of M/s Deepnidhi International. The declared goods were “decorative iron material” with an FOB value of Rs.66,000/-. On examination, 33 boxes were found to contain wooden logs which were identified as Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus), weighing approximately 1,158 kilograms. Since the requisite CITES Management Authority permission was not produced, the goods were treated as prohibited and seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962 on the reasonable belief that they were liable to confiscation under Section 113(d) of the Act.
During investigation, it emerged that the Appellant had filed the Shipping Bill in the name of Deepnidhi without obtaining authorisation from that entity and had not even contacted it before filing the Shipping Bill. The documents relating to the consignment had been provided by Shri Mohit Taneja, stated to be one of the Directors of M/s Soleado Impex, who allegedly requested that the Shipping Bill be filed in the name of Deepnidhi rather than his own firm.
