B D GUPTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition for revision is directed against an order of a Judge of the Small Causes, Delhi, dismissing the petitioner's suit on the ground that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to hear it.

(2.) Messrs. Prago Export of Jhungmanrove, Czecho Slovakia, sent a free sample parcel of sports goods consisting of archery equipment valued at Rs. 28/2/- in the beginning of 1954. As the value of the parcel was less than Rs. 250/-, the plaintiff claimed that it could be imported without an import licence. The Customs Authorities first raised certain objections: the same were met with by the petitioner, but the Customs Authorities still refused to release the goods unless an import licence was furnished. The plaintiff brought the present suit against the Union of India for recovery of Rs. 62/1/- as damages on the alleged ground that the order of the Sea Customs Authorities requiring the petitioner to furnish an import licence was malicious, illegal and against the provisions of the Act and the rules framed thereunder. The preliminary objection raised by the defendant, that the suit in its present form was not maintainable in a Civil Court, was decided against the petitioner and the suit dismissed.

(3.) Admittedly, the order of the Sea Customs Authorities was made under S. 182 of the Sea Customs Act. Section 188 lays down: