DWARIKA PRASAD AGRAWAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present writ application, the petitioner has sought for an appropriate writ and/or direction to the respondent Union of India in the Department of Customs for the refund of the Price of betei nut which was wrongly and arbitrarily seized by the customs authorities and sold, as a consequence of the order of confiscation being set aside in toto by the appellate authority.

(2.) COUNTER affidavits have been filed and reply thereto filed. The uncontroverted facts are that certain stocks of betel nut while in transit were seized by the customs authorities on the ground that they had reason to believe that the said quantity of betel nut was imported in India unauthorisedly. A confiscation proceeding, as envisaged under the Customs Valuation Committee evaluated the value of the seized betel nut at about Rs. 9.6,000/ - which is not disputed. The Collector, Customs ordered confiscation against which statutory appeal was preferred by the petitioner which was allowed. The order of confiscation was set aside. The natural consequence thereof was that the petitioner became entitled in law to the return of the seized goods in the condition in which they were seized or in lieu thereof, the market price of the seized goods on the date of seizure.

(3.) THE appeal being allowed in favour of the petitioner, petitioner was favoured with a cheque of Rs. 36,150/ - only being the sale proceeds of the auction. Petitioner challenges this. He submits that when at the time of seizure, the customs authorities themselves valued the goods at Rs. 96,000/ - then when he succeeded and the confiscation order was set aside, he should have been paid the same value which was the market value assessed by the Department itself.