Page 111 - ELT_1st July 2020_Vol 373_Part 1

2020 ] UNIVERSAL DRUG CENTRE v. UNION OF INDIA 21

REPRESENTED BY : S/Shri K.N. Bhattacharjee, Sr. Advocate and
P. Saha, Advocate, for the Petitioner.
Shri Paramartha Datta and Ms. A. Chakraborty,
Advocates, for the Respondent.
[Judgment (Oral]. - Petitioner has prayed for a direction to the respond-
ents, i.e. the Department of Customs to pay a sum of Rs. 42,28,260 which repre-
sents the value of goods destroyed by the Customs authorities.
2. Brief facts are as under :
Petitioner is a sole proprietary concern and is engaged in the business of
selling medicines. For such purpose, the petitioner was holding a valid
drug licence issued by the competent authority. Such drug licence ex-
pired on 21-12-2011. Before expiry the petitioner had already applied for
renewal of the licence. Such renewal was granted on 10-2-2014 retrospec-
tively extending the licence from 1-1-2012 to 31-12-2016.
3. The petitioner had purchased codeine based cough syrup in the year
2012. The goods in question were seized by the Customs authorities while in
transit in the transport vehicles on 1-4-2012. The Customs authorities issued
show cause notice and instituted adjudication proceedings against the petitioner
and several other persons who according to the adjudicating authority were in-
volved in illegal trade of the said medicine. The adjudicating authority passed an
order-in-original dated 29-11-2013 confiscating the goods and imposing personal
penalties against several noticees including the petitioner. The petitioner alone
challenged the said order of adjudication before the Appellate Commissioner.
Such appeal was dismissed on 23-2-2015 by the Commissioner (Appeals) against
which the petitioner filed further appeal before the Customs, Excise and Service
Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT, for short). By an order dated 28-2-2018
CESTAT remanded the proceedings qua the petitioner alone before the adjudicat-
ing authority. The adjudicating authority thereupon passed a fresh order dated
30-8-2018 relevant portion of which reads as under :
“DISCUSSION & FINDINGS
11. As ordered by CESTAT, Kolkata vide Order No. FO/75215/2018 dat-
ed 28-2-2018, I now proceed to decide the case afresh after consider-
ing the submission of Shri Satya Ranjan Saha.
12. On going through the case records and the Order No.
COM/CUS/ADDL.COMMR/90/2013, dated 29-11-2013, I find that
penalty has been imposed on Shri Satya Ranjan Saha under Sections
114(iii) and 117 of the Customs Act, 1962 mainly on the ground that
the drug licence of M/s. Universal Drug Centre owned by Shri Satya
Ranjan Saha had expired after 31-12-2011 and the same had not been
renewed when the consignments of codeine based cough syrup were
detected on 1-4-2012. In his order dated 29-11-2013, the Adjudicating
Authority opined that M/s. Universal Drug Centre, Agartala have
been dealing in codeine based cough syrup without the requisite
permission from the Drug Controlling Authority. Shri Satya Ranjan
Saha could not produce any evidence before the investigation or
Commissioner (Appeals) that the Drug Licence had been renewed by
the Competent Authority. However, during the Personal Hearing
held on 26-6-2018, in the remand proceedings on the direction of
Hon’ble CESTAT, Shri Satya Ranjan Saha submitted a letter dated 26-

EXCISE LAW TIMES  1st July 2020  111