Order Date – 24 August 2022

Facts – 

• The appellant, Mr. Thirumalai Thiyagarajan and anr., were issued a show cause notice which included the appellants for their act of arranging the forged OOC documents and removing the container from the Customs Area without proper permission.
• Penalty of Rs.1,40,000/- was imposed under Section 112(a) ibid. and a further penalty Rs.30,00,000/- was imposed under Section 114AA ibid. 
• The appellants preferred appeal before the First Appellate Authority, who having rejected the appeals of these appellants.
• Aggrieved the appellant filed an appeal. 

Issue – 

• Whether the penalty under Sections 112(a) and 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962, levied by the Adjudicating Authority is correct?

Order – 

• The Tribunal observed that the penal action in question has been taken solely based on the statements of co-noticees, which is directly contrary to the judgment of the Hon’ble Madras High Court Commissioner v. Sushil Kumar Kanodia. 
• From a perusal of the Show Cause Notice as well as the orders of the lower authorities, they did not placed reliance on any corroborative piece of evidence other than mere statements.
• The Tribunal held that the Revenue has failed to bring on record any material evidence to justify the imposition of penalty, more so when they did not even allege that the act or omission on the part of these appellants has led to confiscation of the goods.
•  Accordingly, the penalty imposed, as confirmed in the impugned order, cannot be sustained, and the appeals were allowed.