RESOURCE COMMUNICATION Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is against an order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) pursuant to a remand order of this Bench vide Order No. 291/98 dated 12.2.1998 in Appeal No. C/567/1996. The appellants had imported Satellite Receivers and Low noise Blocks (LNB for short) without import licence. As these items were found to be in the Negative List of Imports and required specific licence for import, the original authority had confiscated the same under Section 111 of the Customs Act. The appeal preferred by the party against the decision of the said authority was dismissed by the Commissioner (Appeals). The appellate Commissioner's order was set aside by this Bench in Appeal No. C/567/1996 and the case remanded. The purpose of the remand was to enable the lower appellate authority to find out as to whether the above items had been sold as such or sold as part of complete DRS (Direct Reception Set) in terms of the opinion given by the Department of Electronics. In the impugned order passed by learned Commissioner (Appeals) pursuant to the Tribunal's remand order, the imported goods were found to have been sold as such, i.e., the otherwise than as part of complete DRS. Learned Commissioner (Appeals) arrived at this finding on the basis of the relevant invoices produced by the party. All these invoices were meticulously examined by the appellate authority and it was clearly found that neither Satellite Receiver nor any LNB imported by the appellants was cleared by them as part of complete DRS. All the relevant invoices were in the nature of sale of the goods as such. This finding has not been rebutted by the appellants. In other words, the actual user condition prescribed in ITC Public notice No. 32/92 -97 dated 17.7.92 produced by learned SDR today was not satisfied by the appellants. The Public notice declared that accessories, components, parts and spares of consumer durables, except those specifically included in the Negative List of Imports, could be imported by a manufacturer of the consumer durables without a licence and further that such imports would be subject to actual user condition. Though the appellants claimed to be manufacturers of DRS, they could not establish that the Satellite Receivers and LNBs imported by them were used in the manufacture of DRS. The Department of Electronics, in their opinion, provided a list of numerous components required for the manufacture of DRS, which included the items imported by the appellants. This opinion was accepted by the appellants also inasmuch as, in the Grounds of Appeal, they have relied on this opinion. In order to establish that the imported items were used in the manufacture of DRS, the appellants should have indigenously procured the remaining items and manufactured DRS out of all the items and cleared this product as a complete set no evidence of such clearance was adduced by the party. On the other hand, the invoices produced by them only showed sale of the imported items as such. Learned Commissioner (Appeals), following our remand order scrupulously, examined these invoices and arrived at the right finding, which is to the effect that the actual user condition for free import of Satellite Receiver and LNB without licence was not satisfied by the party. The goods were rightly found to have been liable for confiscation.

(2.) TODAY there is no representation for the appellants despite notice, nor any request on theirs for adjournment and therefore we have taken up this old appeal for final disposal.

(3.) IN the result, for the reasons already noted herein before, the impugned order is sustained and this appeal is dismissed.