CHANDIGARH: Taking note of the "irresponsible" and “casual” attitude of Ludhianabased commissionerate of central customs department and Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) over the seizure of a container with around 39.6 lakh cigarette sticks, which were declared as scrap in the accompanying documents, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the CBI to probe the matter.
The agency has also been directed to fix the liability of the erring officials. The high court has directed that the preliminary investigation be conducted by an officer not below the rank of SP CBI and the report submitted within 30 days.
"Though the officers of customs department as well as the CGST department derive their powers from the respective Customs Act, 1962, and the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017, and... are part of premium investigating agencies, instead of fighting and levelling allegations against each other, office of the director general of both the departments should have intervened and settled the dispute. Therefore, taking note of the tardy, casual and irresponsible attitude of both the departments, I find it to be a fit case where the matter needs to be referred to the CBI for conducting further investigation of the case and fix liability of the erring officials," the HC ordered.
Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by Sunil Dutt seeking anticipatory bail in some offences under Customs Act pending before the department of customs, customs commissionerate Ludhiana. Dutt has claimed to be a registered informer of GST Commissionerate who has helped unearth many scams and GST evasion for which he has been awarded. The petitioner is also enrolled as a G–card holder by the department of customs on behalf of M/s. Safe Cargo Clearing Services and assists in moving the files of parties in the department of customs for handling the custom clearances.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that his client has initially given the information to GST department regarding a consignment which was illegally cleared by the customs department without making any entry and the same was intercepted by the preventive wing of CGST Commissionerate, Ludhiana. It was found that the container’s shipping line seal was intact which suggested that the customs authorities never checked the consignment.
When the consignment was checked by the preventive wing of CGST Commissionerate, Ludhiana, in April this year, it was found containing 39,60,000 cigarettes (100 mm each) of four different brands, 10,030 kg iron scrap and four alloy wheels.
While handing over the matter to CBI in the entire controversy, the HC asked the senior counsel of CBI, Sumeet Goel, who was present in the court, that an officer not below the rank of SP conduct an inquiry and submit a report within 30 days.
The matter has now been fixed for December 13 by the HC for further hearing.
