By TIOL News Service

MUMBAI, OCT 29, 2014: THE issue involved is conversion of Shipping Bills for Duty Free Goods into Shipping Bill for drawback.

Against the order passed by the Commissioner of Customs, Pune, the appellant is before the CESTAT with an appeal.

The case was heard by a Single Member Bench and the order was reserved.

An order has been passed in the matter recently.

The Bench noted that Single Member Bench can hear cases as per Section 129C(4) of the Customs Act, 1962 and which reads -

"(4) The President or any other member of the Appellate Tribunal authorized in this behalf by the President may, sitting singly, dispose of any case which has been allotted to the Bench of which he is a member where -

(a) the value of the goods confiscated without option having been given to the owner of the goods to pay a fine in lieu of confiscation under section 125; or

(b) in any disputed case, other than a case where the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of customs or to the value of goods for purposes of assessment is in issue or is one of the points in issue, the difference in duty involved or the duty involved; or

(c) the amount of fine or penalty involved does not exceed  fifty lakhs rupees."

Observing that the situation involved in the present case is not covered by any of the sub-clauses, namely (a), (b) or (c) above, the Member (T) held that the matter cannot be decided by the Single Member Bench and must be heard by the Division Bench.

And so, the Registry was directed to place the matter before the Division Bench in the normal course.

(See 2014-TIOL-2124-CESTAT-MUM)