Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 16

CUSTOMS ACT, 1969 (IV OF 1969)---Section 16---When the petitioner entered into contract and opened letter of credit, there was no prohibition in any law for the export of poppy seeds from Pakistan, the notification No. S.R.O. 28(1)/99, dated 14.01.1999 is prospective and would be ineffective against the rights of the petitioner to export the poppy seeds, the exporter therefore could not be charged for the offence under section 16 of the Customs Act, 1969. The appellants exported 74 metric ton of poppy seeds. The post export audit scrutiny of the documents revealed that export of poppy seeds stood banned with effect from 14-01-1999 vide SRO 28(1)/99. These facts lead to issuance of show cause notice to the appellant whereby the customs authorities asked him to show cause for the commission of said act which did constitute violation of section 16 of the Customs Act, 1969, though the petitioner denied the charges, yet the adjudication officer held them guilty of the offence of exporting banned goods. He accordingly imposed penalties on all these appellants. The present appeals have been preferred against the said order. The issue before us is that initially the export of poppy seeds was not banned in the Export Policy Order 1998-99, however, vide Notification No. 28(1)/99, poppy seeds were included in Schedule 1 to the Export Policy Order, with the result that export of poppy seeds was completely banned. So the question before us is that where a contract for export was entered into before 14-01-1999, would it be right to charge the exporter for the offence under section 16 of the Customs Act, 1969. In an illuminating reported as A. Razzaq and Co. v. Government of Pakistan (PLJ 2000 Lah. 53), wherein their lordships have observed as under: " .... 5. It is contended by the petitioner's learned counsel that the export of poppy seeds was freely allowed under the Export Policy Order, 1998 under section 3(1) of Import and Export (Control) Act, 1950 at the time when the petitioner had entered into a contract with the Indian importer on 08-09-1998 and also established a letter of credit on 23-09-1998 and further that the petitioner had exported a part of the poppy seeds.…

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