PREM NATH Vs. S VENKATESAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Civil Writ petitions Nos. 180-D to 186-D of 1959 are connected petitions under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution In these petitions the petitioners pray that this Court may be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction calling for the record in these cases, and declare the orders passed by the Deputy Collector of Customs on 4th June. 1956, the Central Board of Revenue on 25th September, 1957, and the Central Government on 12th January. !959, "as illegal, perverse, arbitrary, unjust and without jurisdiction, and quash the same.

(2.) The only point for decision is whether the petitioners have been able to establish that the impugned orders suffer from any error of law apparent on the face of the record or, in the alternative, whether any of the authorities concerned failed to exercise its jurisdiction as required by law.

(3.) A heavy penalty was imposed on the petitioners on the ground that they imported into India chaff cutter knives without obtaining the necessary licences. The petitioners denied that allegation. The Deputy Collector of Customs after notice to the petitioners and after hearing them, rejected their case and imposed penalty on them. Aggrieved by that order, the petitioners went up in appeal to the Central Board of Revenue under section I S8 of the Sea Customs Act. They took various grounds of fact and law in their appeal memo. The Central Board of Revenue, by its order dated 25th September, 1957, dismissed the appeal with the following observations :-