Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

18. This completes a survey of all the material provisions of the Act. It is in the light of these statutory provisions that the contentions advanced by the learned counsel for the writ petitioner have to be considered.

19. The first question for consideration is regarding the point at which import customs duty under section 20 is attracted. The relevant clauses of section 20 to be considered here are clauses (a) and (c) Clause (a) envisages a levy of duty "on goods imported by sea into any customs-port from any foreign port". Clause (c) envisages a case where goods are brought to any customs-port and, without payment of duty thereon or being discharged there, are transhipped for or thence carried to and imported at another customs-port. In the present case, duty is demanded under section 20(a). It is argued for the Revenue that an import takes place when the ships carrying any goods enter any port and that, since the petitioner's vessels were allowed entry within the limits of Tuticorin port, the oil taken on at Colombo and remaining on board the ship at the time of such entry should be deemed to have been "imported" into Tuticorin from Colombo. Some support can also be found for this argument from the use of the words "without payment of duty" in clause (c) which, it is possible to urge, means that the mere act of bringing goods into the port will attract duty but that, if for some reason no duty is then paid and the goods are then brought into another Indian port they would attract duty at the second port. In fact, one can perhaps even go further and urge that an import takes place when the goods enter the territory of, or the territorial waters of Indian on the basis of section 3A of the Act (introduced in 1950). This section empowers the Central Government to define the "customs frontiers" of India and a notification was issued on 1st April, 1950 under that section. The text of that notification was is not available; possibly it defined the customs frontiers as the boundaries of India but it has been superseded by a notification of 1955 which defines the customs frontiers "as the boundaries of the territory, including territorial waters, of India." It can, therefore, be suggested that an "import" should be deemed to take place at this stage.