CENTURY TEXTILES Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard forthwith.

(2.) The petitioner company is in the business of manufacture and export of Rayon Viscose Filament Yarn, hereinafter referred to as the Yarn having its factory at Shahad, District Thane. Chapter 4 of the Export-Import Policy for the period April 1992 to March, 1997, hereinafter referred to as the said Policy, contained the Duty Exemption and Remission inter alia provided for issue of advance licenses for duty free import of the raw materials/inputs against export obligation. The petitioners were issued several advance licences. Against the advance licences granted to the petitioners exports were effected from time to time and export obligations were duly discharged by the petitioners.

(3.) The present petition relates to two advance licences bearing No.03020800 dated 12th December, 1995 and 03201698 dated 28th March, 1996 which hereinafter shall be referred to as the licences. According to the petitioners at the time of exports the petitioners correctly declared the goods in each shipping bill and wherever the said yarn was sub-standard, the same was so declared by the petitioners. The petitioners yarn was examined by the Customs Officer and after completion of the assessment under Section 17 of the Customs Act the yarn was allowed to be exported by the proper officer under Section 51 of the Customs Act. After completion of the exports as is required in law, the petitioners submitted all the export documents for audit and/or logging of the DEEC Books Part-I and II by the Respondent No.5. As there was a delay in audit/logging of the licenses on 4th June, 2002 the petitioners filed Writ Petition No.1156 of 2002 in this Court which came to be disposed of by an order directing the respondents to complete the auditing and logging of DEECs and until then directed the Respondents not to invoke the bank guarantees which were furnished by the petitioners before the import of goods under one of the said licenses. Pursuant to the order of this Court the auditing and logging of the said license were completed by the Customs Authorities. In the course of auditing/logging the Customs Authorities accepted all the exports made by the petitioners, but demanded duty on the alleged excess quantity imported by the petitioners. This demand of customs duty along with the interest in respect of the said license was also paid by the petitioners.