- (1.) The Court : This appeal is directed against an order passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata [2008 (229) E.L.T. 555 (Tri.-Kolkata)] whereby the Learned Tribunal held as follows : "However, considering the fact that the Department has not been able to dispose of the sandal wood lying in their custody for a long period of 14 years and the same were legally purchased from the Karnataka State Government Forest Department, this particular case warrants lenient consideration. Accordingly, I allow redemption of the confiscated sandal wood valued at Rs. 64.00 lakhs (Rupees Sixty lakhs) on a fine of Rs. 8.00 lakhs (Rupees eight lakhs) only subject to the condition that the appellants on release of the same would reprocess the goods into finished sandal wood and export the same within three months from the date of release of the goods in dispute. Penalty of Rs. 5.00 lakhs imposed on the appellant firm is reduced to Rs. 2.00 lakhs (Rupees two lakhs) and since no specific involvement of the appellant partner has been brought out, penalty on him is set aside."
(2.) The facts of the case are briefly as Follows : The respondent is a partnership firm, which is registered under Registrar of Firms having its registered office mentioned in the petition. The appellant is engaged in the business of manufacturing machine made sandal wood knife handle, paper weights etc. and exporting the same lo its foreign buyers. Admittedly, the respondent purchased the sandal wood from the Karnataka Government Forest Department. The respondent purchased legally the said goods from the Karnataka Government Forest Department and thereafter tried to export semi-finished, unfinished sandal wood products and at the time of such attempt to export the goods, the goods were seized by the Customs authorities. The steps were taken by the authorities and at one point of time the adjudicating authority after fulfilling the provisions of law gave hearing to the respondent and passed an order against the respondent.
(3.) Being aggrieved, the respondent filed an appeal before the Tribunal and it was the case before the Tribunal that the semi finished and unfinished sandal wood pieces had been confiscated by the Customs authority and penalty had been imposed on the firm and on one of the partners of the said firm. It has been stated that there was no fault on the part of the partner or on the part of the firm. The authorized signatory is responsible for violation of the Customs Law as it was submitted that he was not authorized to enter for exporting the entry goods but to keep them finished products in Kolkata and thereafter should have exported the same as it is permitted under the provisions of law and/or the policies. In this background of the factual matrix, it was urged before the Tribunal that the Tribunal should consider the case leniently in case of imposition of penalty and no separate penalty should be imposed on the partner of the firm in question. The Tribunal after considering the facts and circumstances of the case and after hearing the parties came to the conclusion that the prohibited goods have been involved in export and since the person who signed the shipping bills was duly authorised by the firm and the partners cannot absolved totally from the penal consequences. Therefore, the confiscation of the prohibited sandal wood is in order and the Tribunal passed the order accordingly.;