Full Judgment
2. The facts in brief are that the appellants imported a consignment of diagnostic chemicals through courier mode under the Courier Import Export (Clearance) Regulations 1998. The import of the said chemicals through courier mode was not permitted without an appropriate import licence. Hence, such import was treated as a violation of the Exim Policy. Therefore, the goods under importation were confiscated with an option to redeem the same on payment of redemption fine of Rs. 30,000/-, besides penalty of Rs. 15,000/- was also imposed on the appellants. The appeal against the order was rejected. Hence the instant appeal before the Tribunal.
4. The appellants have invited my attention to the fact that, the instructions to the overseas suppliers were to send the goods by air and not through the courier. The appellants are regular importers and it was the mistake of the overseas supplier to have despatched the goods through courier. They also placed before me the communication addressed to the bank stating that the supplier had sent the consignment by mistake through courier directly to the appellants instead of the consignment by air as per the L/C terms. The bank was requested to accept this as a discrepancy and effect the payment under L/C. On the basis of these facts, the appellants are claiming that they had no intention to violate the policy and they had no knowledge that the importation would be effected in violation of policy so as to render the goods liable to confiscation. Hence it was pleaded no penalty is called for in this case.
5. I have considered the submissions. So far as the imposition of penalty is concerned, I note that, the appellants themselves have not done any act of commission or omission and had any express knowledge of the fact that the overseas supplier would effect the despatch through a courier mode which would be a violation of Exim policy. The appellants are regular importers and no extra benefit was available to them in the process of imports through courier mode, instead of regular air cargo mode. Hence, there are no grounds for sustaining the penalty imposed.
6. So far as confiscation is concerned, though technically the import does violate the Exim policy provisions, it is not as if the importers have resorted to have any devious method of circumventing the Exim policy by opting to import through courier mode, when the import under regular air cargo mode was permissible under OGL. As no benefit could have accrued to the importers through such an importation, this technical breach of Exim policy is condonable. Therefore, the order of confiscation is set aside.
7. Consequently, the appeal succeeds and the impugned orders of the lower authorities are set aside with consequential relief to the appellants in accordance with the law.