Suhas Chandra Sen, J. - (1.) The petitioner carries on business, inter alia, of running Public Bonded Warehouse since October, 1980. The warehouse is situated at premises No. J-14, Industrial Estate, Balitikuri, Howrah. The warehouse is utilised by importers for storage of imported goods without payment of duty under Section 57 of the Customs Act, 1962.
(2.) Sections 57 and 58 are as under: "S.57. Appointing of public warehouse. - At any warehousing station, the Assistant Collector of Customs may appoint public warehouses wherein dutiable goods may be deposited without payment of duty. S.58. Licensing of private warehouses. - At any warehousing station, the Assistant Collector of Customs may license Private warehouses wherein dutiable goods imported by or on behalf of the licensee, or any other imported goods in respect of which facilities for deposit in a public warehouse are not available, may be deposited without payment of duty".
(3.) Warehousing station has been defined in Section 2(45) as a place declared as Warehousing station under Section 9. There is no dispute that the place at which the petitioner has been permitted to run a Public Bonded Warehouse is a warehousing sta tion. There appears to be a good deal of confusion as to the true nature of the Public Bonded Warehouse and the Private Bonded Warehouse in the Customs Department itself. The petitioner was granted a licence sometime in 1980 to run a Private Warehouse. The licence was granted in a printed form issued by the Collectorate of Customs. The printed form is under the Heading "Licence for Private Bonded Warehouse" and contains the following recitals:- "The undermentioned godown being the property of Mr./M/s ... is hereby licensed under section 58 of the Customs Act, 1962, as amended, as a Private Bonded Warehouse for storage of...." There is no dispute that the petitioner was granted a licence in that form in 1980. The licence was renewed in 1981 in prescribed form issued by the Collectorate of Customs. The Heading of the form of renewal is "Renewal of Licence for Private/Public Bonded Warehouse". In the body of the form it is printed" ... issued/appointed U/Sec. 57/58(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 in respect of Godown/Private Warehouse Number ...". In the licence of the petitioner, in the Heading, the word "Private" was scored out. But in the body of the licence Sec. 58(1) was scored out. The result was that the petitioner was granted a renewal licence for Public Bonded Warehouse according to the Heading of the Licence whereas in the body of the licence it has been recorded that the petitioner has been appointed under Section 57 of the Customs Act, 1962. This is the result of scoring out of Sec. 58(1) from the body of the licence. This practice was followed in the years 1982 and 1983. Sometime in 1984 the petitioner was informed that the petitioner's licence had not been renewed for storage of imported goods without payment of duty. Thereupon the petitioner moved a writ petition challenging the decision of the Customs Department.;