look news india
New Delhi: The Customs Department on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are also empowered to collect duty on goods approved for import under the Customs Act. The Customs Department has sought a review of the 2021 decision of the Supreme Court in this regard.
In its March 9, 2021 judgment, a three-member bench headed by then Chief Justice SA Bobde held that the DRI officer is not the competent authority under the Customs Act, 1962 and has no jurisdiction to levy duty on goods that have already been cleared for import by the Customs Department. The Supreme Court had quashed the show cause notices issued by the DRI to private companies, including M/s Canon India Private Limited, demanding payment of fees and consequent seizure of goods, demand of interest and imposition of penalty under the Act were quashed.
ASG N. Venkataraman, appearing for the department, told a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra that there were six serious flaws in the decision based on the record, which failed to address the issues required by the law. He said a DRI officer can become a customs officer tomorrow. Since 1977, Customs Duty and DRI have been part of the Ministry of Finance and under the law, their officers are class officers. This decision proceeds on the wrong assumption that the DRI officer is not a qualified officer under the Customs Duty Act but an officer of a different department of the Central Government. He said, 'We are not asking BSF officers to re-evaluate the customs demands. The next hearing of the case will be on Thursday.
