VIJAYANTA TRAVELS Vs. R P GHATNEKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) PETITIONER No. 2 Babu Singh is the owner of Bus No. MNP-3907 and holds an All India permit for running it on hire. The Bus plies between Indore and Bombay. Video Cassette Recorder and Colour Television are installed in this Bus. According to the petitioners this Video Cassette Recorder and Colour T. V. were imported by one Marukh Mohammed on 25-10-1980 and he had paid the requisite import duty at the Bombay Customs Office vide Baggage Receipt No. 334651 dated 25th October, 1980. This Marukh Mohammed transferred the imported Colour T. V. and Video Cassette Recorder to petitioner No. 2, Babu Singh and the same were fitted in the Bus. On 17-11-1981, Officers of the Central Excise Department, headed by the respondent No. 1, Superintendent Central Excise (Preventive) visited the office of the petitioner and seized the said T. V. and Video Cassette Recorder along with the Baggage Receipt and T. V. Licence in the name of the petitioner No. 2, Babu Singh.

(3.) PETITIONERS have challenged the seizure on the ground that the requisite import duty on the Television and the Video Cassette Recorder had been duly paid and these articles were cleared at the Customs. It was alleged that the action of the respondents was mal fide because the petitioners had refused to provide them extra facilities in their travels.