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3. The petitioner-Company has been granted licence to act as Custom House Agent (CHA, for brevity) by the Commissioner vide CHA Licence No.5/91 (Regular) which has since been renewed vide C.No.VIII/13/5/99-Cus. Tech., dated 15-11-1999 and valid upto 25-11-2004. As per the licence issued, the licensee is authorised to transact business as Customs House Agent at ICD Reddipalem, Guntur.

4. The Container Corporation of India Limited, Guntur, (CONCOR, for brevity), the 2nd respondent herein after developing the area and upgrading the facilities by providing infrastructure at ICD, Reddipalem, Guritur and furnishing the Undertakings and requisite Bond, as required in Boards Circular No.128/95, dated 14-12-1995 requested the Commissioner for re-notification of the "Customs Area" and appointment of CONCOR as the Custodian. After inspection of the new facilities and scrutiny of the Undertakings, the Commissioner issued notification No,l/2001 dated 17-1-2001 appointing CONCOR as the Custodian and Public Notice No.9/2001 dated 3-2-2001 prescribing the procedure to be followed at ICD, Reddipalem, Guntur for Imports/ Exports.

"3. The petitioner respectfully submits that the functions of a CHA are two fold. The first part of the CHA's work is to clear the goods from the port, in case of import, by doing the necessary paper work and obtaining clearance from Custdin and Central Excise authorities to move the goods. In case of exports, the goods are cleared for export from the container terminals either at the port or at other places. After complying with all the procedural formalities, the goods are loaded into the ships bound for the country of destination, in case of exports or sent to the concerned importer. Thus after the paper work is completed, the goods have to be necessarily transported to either the warehouse of the importer or to the concerned port for export. This forms the second major activity of a Customs House Agent. Since the CHAs act as the agents of the importer or exporter, as the case may be, they are incharge of the goods until the goods are properly delivered at the right destination. The customs authorities are vested with wide powers to search any conveyance, when the goods are being transported, and only the CHAs would be competent to answer the questions put by the authorities since they have cleared the concerned goods for import or export. The CHAs are also answerable to their principals, namely the Importers or Exporters, if for any reason the goods are delayed or have been detained anywhere during transportation. The CHAs therefore have to necessarily take charge of the transportation of the goods also.

18. In terms of Regulation 10(2)(b) that an applicant for the CHA licence should satisfy the authority that he is financially sound and possesses the ability to provide adequate warehousing and transport facilities. Regulation 10(2)(b) is subject to Regulation 6(b) which categorises the Customs Stations into two groups and the CHA should have assets of the value of not less than Rs.One lakh in the case of the first group and not less than Rs.50,000/- in the case of second group. Secondly, as could be seen from the definition of CHA in the Act and in Regulation 10(2)(b), the area of activity of a CHA is limited to 'at any Customs Station' and 'at the place of clearance of goods'. These unambiguous terms expressly limit the role and responsibility of the CHA to the ports for which he or it has been given licence. In taking this view, we are fortified by the judgment of the Calcutta High Court in D. Sengitpta v Collector of Customs and others, 1987 (31) ELT 30 (Cal), with which we are in respectful agreement. Paragraphs 34 and 35 of the said judgment read:

19. As could be seen from the foregoing provisions of the statute and the judicial pronouncement, the role of a CHA is limited to the obligations as laid down in Regulation 14. The requirement of ability to provide adequate warehousing and transport facilities at the place of clearance of goods as required under Regulation 10(2)(b) is only for the purpose of assisting the exporter or importer for whom the CHA acts as an agent for transport of goods from the customs area to the premises or the importer or vice-versa. In the case of exports, after clearance by the Customs at the Customs area, his responsibility as agent of the Exporter/Importer ceases. In that view of the matter, there is no substance in the contention of the learned Counsel for the petitioner that the transportation of goods is a major activity of any CHA and that the Act recognises that CHAs are persons who are normally entrusted with the transport of goods. The contention of the petitioner that it has obtained Multimodel Transport Operators Licence from the Ministry of Surface Transport and is licensed to carry the cargo on a warehouse to warehouse basis has nothing to do with its obligations as a licensed CHA. The Multimodel Transport Operator Licence was issued to the petitioner-company not under the provisions of the Act, but under the provisions of the Registration of Multimodel Transport Operators Rules, 1992.