CHIEF CONTROLLER OF IMPORTS Vs. N K ROY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This case caused a long argument before us in two stages but really the issue is an extremely simple one. The length of the argument was caused by the confused manner in which the proceedings had been conducted by and before the Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the condition of the paaper-book.

(2.) The facts are as follows A firm called Messrs Mehar and Company had occasion to apply to the Government of India for a licence to import safety razor Wades from Germany for the period July-December 1950 According to the Rules relating to Import Licences, an applicant for a licence was required to furnish, a statement of its past imports duly certified by an auditor. Mehar and Company furnished a statement certified by the Respondent, Shri N.K. Roy, and the statement included consignments of imports which have been referred to in these proceedings as items 2 and 3. Upon an examination of that statement, the authorities of the Government of India came to feel some suspicion as to its accuracy in view of the largeness of the imports claimed. They thereupon took steps to verify the items and discovered that the goods referred to in items 2 and 3 had not, in fact, been imported by Mehar and Company at all, but had been imported by a totally different firm, called Messrs. R. Abraham and Company, who had, in fact, used those imports in aid of their own application,, for an import licence and obtained a licence on the strength of those imports.

(3.) The Chief Controller of Imports thus had a case before him in which the Respondent had given a certificate that the goods referred to in items 2 and 3 had been imported by Mehar and Company, whereas, in fact, they had not been imported by the firm. Naturally, the Chief Controller came to think that if the Respondent had taken care to verify the entries made in the statement by reference to the documents mentioned in column 3 of the standard form, he could not have given the certificate which he had, in fact, given. Among the documents mentioned in column 3 are Bills of Entry and the Chief Controller thought that since the goods concerned had been imported by R. Abraham and Company, the Bills of Entry must have been in the name of that firm and in so far as the auditor had stated in the report that he had checked and verified the entries contained in the statement by reference to the. documents mentioned in the standard form, including Bills of Entry, he could not have made a true statement. In these circumstances, the Chief Controller made a complaint to the Institute of Chartered Accountants against the Respondent out of which the present proceedings have arisen.