HANEEF KHAN LIYAKAT ALI KHAN AND Vs. CC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE six appeals are against Order -in -Appeal No. 53/98 -Cus. dated 28.4.1998 passed by Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) wherein the Order -in -Original No. 30/96 dated 6.6.1996 passed by Additional Commissioner has been upheld in respect of absolute confiscation of five cars imported totally valued at Rs. 8,40,076/ - under Section 111(d) of the Customs Act. The original authority had also imposed penalty of Rs. 4,00,000/ - lacs on Shri Arvind Rao and penalty of Rs, 20,000/ - each on the following five other appellants now before us under Section 112 of the Customs Act:

(2.) THE short issue involved in this case is import of 5 second -hand cars out of which 4 cars are Honda Accord and 1 car is Toyota Corona, the last one being imported by Shri Mani Ravi. Shri Mani Ravi was an NRI based at Singapore whereas the other 4 cars are claimed to be imported by the other four persons out of the 5 mentioned above when they returned from occupation in Saudi Arabia as per the transfer of residence scheme.

(3.) HEARD Shri Lakshmi Narayana, Learned Advocate for appellants who submits as follows: