S.B.Sinha, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted in S.L.Ps.
(2.) THESE appeals are directed against a judgment and order dated 30th January, 2006 passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad in Tax Appeal Nos. 1923, 1924, 1925, 1930, 1928 and 1929 of 2005 respectively, whereby and whereunder the appeal preferred by the appellant herein was dismissed holding that no substantial question of law for its consideration had arisen therein. The factual matrix obtaining herein is not in dispute. Eight persons including the respondents herein were detained for carrying 551 gold biscuits of foreign origin, the details whereof are as under: JUDGEMENT_177_TLPRE0_2007Html1.htm Out of the said 551 of gold biscuits, 200 belonged to Shri Vijaybhai Dashrathlal Patel, Proprietor of M/s. Paras Bullion, whereas 351 belonged to Shri Shailesh Ratilal Patel, Proprietor of M/s. S.K. Jewellers. Both of them were arrested. They made their statements under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 ('the Act', for short). Shri Vijaybhai Dashrathlal Patel, respondent herein, allegedly, in his statement disclosed that he had purchased the said 200 gold biscuits from one Ridhi Siddhi Bullion Ltd. who had produced a delivery challan of ABN AMRO Bank issued in its favour. Other than the said delivery challan, allegedly, he could not produce any other document. The purported letter of ABN AMRO Bank dated 12.11.1999 addressed the Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Ahmedabad is in the following terms: We wish to inform you that we had sold 100 Ten Tola Gold Bars and 150 Ten Tola Gold Bars to the captioned company under our invoice numbers 99/BAR/138 dated 25th October, 1999 for Rs. 55,53,640/- and 99/BAR/139 dated 25th October, 1999 for Rs. 81,49,025/-. The above Ten Tola Gold Bars were out of the consignment stock of 1000 TT bars imported by us from Credit Suisse First Boston, Zurich under AWB No.085- 1490-2753 dated 20th September, 1999. We had paid the applicable customs duty at the time of clearance of the consignment on 22nd September, 1999. We also confirm that the delivery was effected on our behalf by M/s. Brinks Arya (India) Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad. This letter has been issued at the request of M/s. Riddhisiddhi Bullions Ltd. We hope the above information is sufficient and shall be glad to furnish any further information you may require. According to him, he had sold 200 gold biscuits to one Devangbhai Patel on 23.10.1999, but had no document to establish the same or that he had not received any payment therefor. It was the further statement of the said respondent that he had sold 300 gold biscuits to Shailesh Patel, but again therefor no commercial invoice or delivery challan had been issued. A further statement was made to the effect that out of the said 300 gold biscuits, 130 having UBS marking were purchased from one K.L. Chokshi and remaining 170 were purchased from different parties, but again therefor no payment was made either in cash or cheque. Statement of Shailesh Patel was recorded on 24.10.1999 under Section 108 of the Act when he disclosed that he had purchased 300 gold bars from Paras Bullion but no bill had been issued therefor nor any payment has been made by him. On the said date, statement of Naresh Chokshi was also recorded, wherein, allegedly, he did not make any statement to the effect that he had sold any gold bar of UBS mark to Paras Bullion. The second statement of Shailesh Patel was recorded on 29.10.1999, wherein he reiterated his earlier statement, stating: ...On being further questioned, I have to state that the details of the receipt/purchase of the said foreign mark gold biscuits are narrated in the prior statement given by me.... In his statement recorded on 28.10.1999, Vijay Dasharath Patel had made a statement that details of purchases of the gold biscuits could be furnished only upon perusal of his books of accounts.
(3.) WE need not refer to the other statements made by other persons recorded by the Customs Officers on that date, being not relevant for the purpose of this case. WE may, however, notice that proceedees retracted from their statements on 11.11.1999, alleging that he had the requisite documents to support their contentions that gold seized were not smuggled ones. However, according to Vijay Dasharath Patel, 300 gold bars were sold to M/s. S.K Jewellers, out of which 201 were purchased from M/s. K.L. Chokshi and the rest were purchased from other jewellers. According to him, he did not maintain any stock register. He further stated that he had sold 200 gold bars to Patel Bullion on 23.10.1999, although he had not received any payment from the said vendee.;