- (1.) The Court : The petitioner No. 1 is a public Limited Company of which the petitioner No. 2 is one of the Directors. The said petitioners have, by way of this writ application, questioned an order of seizure of 158 cartoons of Velvet Fabrics and 292 cartoons of Silk yern detained/seized from the godown of the petitioner in terms of section 110(1) of the Customs Act hereinafter called and referred to for the sake of brevity as the said Act.
(2.) The basic fact of the matter is not dispute. The petitioners carry on business of manufacture of various textile materials. They obtained various export orders relating to textile materials and lady long coats wherefor they applied for advance DECC for the import of articles therefore in terms of Export-Import Policy 1992-97. It was granted three licenses which are either quantity based or value based or both quantity and value based. They have also furnished bank guarantees or letters of undertaking to the Director General of Foreign Trade to secure the excise duty in case of non-fulfilment of stipulated export obligation. The consignments were received and allegedly upon verification thereof by the proper officer an order for release of goods was passed in terms of Section 47 of the said Act whereafter they were allegedly temporarily kept with the Clearing Agent. On 22.4.95 the petitioners imported mulberry raw silk which were also released upon compliance of all formalities in terms of Section 47 of the said Act. Similarly another consignment was exported by them on 28.6.95. The petitioners contend that owing to some administrative problem a lock-out was declared in the mill and Factory belonging to the petitioner and they could not take delivery of the goods from the Clearing Agents whereafter they took on rent a godown on 24.7.95 at a fixed rental of Rs. 35,000/- per month. The goods in question were shifted in the said godown, on 13th and 14th August 1995 where after Officer In-charge of Titagar police Station put the godown under lock and key. Allegedly the petitioners supplied xerox copies of all the relevant documents but inspite of that the said godown was sealed on 18th August, 1995. An application was moved for release of the said godown before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate and by an order dated 19.8.95 the said application was put up for hearing on 21st August 1995, on which date the matter was again posted on 23rd August 1995. Allegedly as despite notice the Superintendent of Customs, Barasat did not take any steps relating to the petitioner's application for release of the said goods, the Officer In-charge of Dum Dum police Station was directed to remove the seal of the godown. However, on the same day the Barasat Customs Division, Preventive Unit, passed an order under Section 110(1) of the Customs Act.
(3.) On 24th August, 1995 a summons was issued by the Customs authorities under Section 108 of the said Act; pursuant whereto the learned Advocate of the petitioner appeared with original documents on 28th August, 1995 but as he could not answer some technical questions, he had asked for adjournment. Another summons was issued on 30th August, 1995 directing one Amit Sen, one of the Directors of the Company, to appear on 31st August, 1985. Again an adjournment was sought for. A third notice was issued by the Customs Authorities under Section 108 of the Customs Act asking Shri S. K. Samani, Accountant of the petitioner No. 1 Company, to appear, pursuant whereto he allegedly appeared and explained. Another summons was issued upon Sri H. S. Parekh, the petitioner No. 2 for his appearance on 16th September, 1995 but he could not appear as allegedly he was out of Calcutta. On 13.9.95 an Officer of the petitioner appeared whereafter he was directed to appear on 19.9.95 which he complied with and the original documents were allegedly shown. On 19.9.95, however, 152 belts of Mulberry raw silk of Chinese origin as also 129 cartons of velvet fabrics made of Korea were removed leaving behind 142 bells of Mulberry raw silk and 29 cartons of velbet fabrics in the said godown. On 28.9.95 a search was made in the office of the petitioner-company situated at 3-A Shakespeare Sarani where from various documents were seized.;