SUJANA INDUSTRIES LIMITED HYDERABAD Vs. COLLECTOR CUSTOMS SPECIAL INVESTIGATION AND INTELLIGENCE BRANCH BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in this writ petition are questioning the detention by the officers at Bombay i.e., Respondents 1 and 2 herein, i.e., Collector, Customs, Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch, Bombay and Appraiser of Customs, Special investigation and Intelligence Branch, Bombay, of 45 containers in which, according to them, Mild Steel Sections were being exported to Dubai.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioners that the first petitioner-company was granted Registration-cum-Membership Certificate as "Merchant Exporter" on 6-12-1993 by Engineering Export Promotion Council and it was given Importer Exporter Code (IEC) No. 0988008505 by the Government of India on 21-8-1991. The first petitioner got an order for export of 1000 Metric tonnes of Mild Steel Sections from M/s Techno Imports and Exports at Dubai in U.A.E. under purchase order dated 13-6-1995. Thereafter the first petitioner got Mild Steel Sections manufactured by M/s Ganga Industrial Corporation Limited and submitted the necessary shipping bills dated 17-7-1995 for exporting the same to Dubai. According to the petitioners, the goods got manufactured for export were got inspected by the Chartered Engineer, Insurance Surveyor and Valuer to the Customs Department at Hyderabad as directed by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs, and they were packed into containers at the factory premises under the supervision of the officials of the Customs Department, and loading was also done in their presence from 24-7-1995 onwards. 25 containers with the goods in question reached Bombay on 18-8-1995 and another 20 containers with the goods reached Bombay on 5-9-1995. The Appraiser of Customs, Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch at Bombay, the second respondent herein, seized 25 containers containing the goods in question under panchanama dated 24-8-1995 describing the goods as Mild Steel Ingots and not as Mild Steel Sections; under panchanama dated 12-9-1995 another batch of 20 containers containing the goods in question were also similarly seized describing them as Mild Steel In-gots.

(3.) The second petitioner who is the Managing Director of the first petitioner-company states in his affidavit in support of the writ petition that a detailed representation dated 18-9-1995 was addressed to the third respondent, i.e., Commissioner of Customs, Circle II, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad, requesting him to intervene in the matter and enable the company to get No Objection Certificate to clear the goods at the earliest as the consignee had been pressing hard for early shipment of the goods and that as per his understanding the third respondent sent a fax message to the first respondent, i.e., Collector, Customs, Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch, New Customs House at Bombay stating that "the goods exported may not merit classification as Mild Steel Ingots but merit classification as Mild Steel Sections as they are not in the primary form but subjected to various processes". The second petitioner further states that the second respondent issued summons dated 23-8-1995 to him and another Director of the first petitioner-company to appear before him on 28-9-1995 and 27-9-1995 respectively and also to the Production Incharge of Ganga Industrial Corporation Limited to appear before him on 25-9-1995 and that they are still being examined. From the copies of the said summons filed along with the writ petition it is noticed that they were issued under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 for enquiry being made by the second respondent in connection with the alleged export of Steel Ingots. The petitioners' grievance is stated as follows: