SANJAY FORWARDERS PVT. LTD. Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant CHA has come up in appeal before us against Order -in -Original No. 565/CHA, dated 26 -8 -2002 by which the ld. Commissioner of Customs, Chennai has continued the suspension of their licence No. R -565/CHA for the period ending up to 31 -8 -2004 and has ordered for forfeiture of the security amount of Rs. 25,000/ - furnished by them to the department. The above order has been issued by the ld. Commissioner without prejudice to any other action that may be taken against CHA and its employees/representatives etc., under the provisions of Customs Act or any other law for the time being in force.

(2.) APPEARING on behalf of the appellant, the ld. Advocate, Smt. Prameela Viswanathan, submits that the licence is in suspension with effect from 26 -8 -2000 and this would cause considerable hardship to them if the suspension is allowed to be continued up to 31 -8 -2004, as the CHA and its employees are having no business and are in a very poor condition. She also submitted that the order of forfeiture of security deposit of Rs. 25,000/ - furnished by them to the Customs Authority may also be set aside and no action should be taken against them as it was their first mistake of this type.

(3.) HEARD ld. JDR, Shri A. Jayachandran, who reiterates the findings arrived at by the ld. Commissioner after appreciating the investigation report and pleads that the order of the ld. Commissioner is required to be sustained.