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Assessment of imported goods — Rate of duty, whether
applicable as on date of filing Bill of Entry when du-
ty enhanced same day by Notification issued late in
the evening in a case where goods had entered Indian
territory from Pakistan same day earlier?
The Supreme Court Bench comprising Hon’ble Mr. Justice Dr. D.Y.
Chandrachud and Hon’ble Ms. Justice Indu Malhotra on 7-7-2020 issued notice
and granted interim stay in the Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No. 7543
of 2020 filed by Union of India against the Judgment and Order dated 6-11-2019
of Punjab and Haryana High Court in CWP No. 30349 of 2019 (Rasila Filling
Station v. Union of India). While issuing the notice and granted interim stay, the
Supreme Court passed the following order :
“1. Mr. Balbir Singh, Learned Additional Solicitor General submits
that on 16 February, 2019, the assessment had not been completed and
hence, the Authorized Customs Officer was entitled to carry out an assess-
ment on the basis of the Customs duty leviable under Notification 5/2019.
2. Issue notice.
3. Tag with S.L.P. (C) Nos. 5153-5154 of 2020.
4. There shall be an ad interim stay of the operation of the impugned
judgment and order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court dated 6 Novem-
ber, 2019 in C.W.P. No. 30349/2019.”
The Punjab and Haryana High Court in its impugned order had held
that if the Bill of Entry is filed prior to the date of entry of vehicle carrying goods
into the Indian territory, the relevant date for determination of rate of duty and
tariff value would be the date of entry of such vehicle in India. Since the intent
and purport of issuance of the aforesaid notification was to discourage import
from Pakistan and not to penalize the Indian importers and the goods were pre-
sented along with the bills of entries before 6.00 P.M., i.e., during the office hours
on 16-2-2019, the amended rate of Customs duty under Notification No. 5/2019-
Cus. which came into force at 8.45 P.M. would not apply even though the goods
were not cleared by the proper officer of the Customs on that day under Section
47 of Customs Act, 1962.

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