Pink Floyd verse echoes as Gujarat HC quashes decade-old notices

AHmedabad: Quoting a poetise from the 1973 ping Floyd list “ clip”, a air division bench of the Gujarat high court, has quashed and set aside two “unadjudicated” show cause notices issued by the Customs Department in 2010 and 2011 against a company engaged in the manufacture and export of dyes and chemicals.In an order delivered on March 7 and uploaded on March 25, a division of the Gujarat high court comprising justices Bhargav Karia and DN Ray quoted the Roger Waters-penned verse of the British rock band’s album “The Dark Side of the Moon” to frame their order with a reminder of time lost.“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you… No one told you when to run, You missed the starting gun…,” the bench said in a 12-page order in response to a special civil application filed by Rohan Dyes and Intermediates Limited, which sought quashing of the two show-cause notices issued by the Customs Department close to 15 years ago.The case dates back to 2009 when the Gujarat-based company — Rohan Dyes and Intermediates Limited — exported “Synthetic Organic Dyes Acid Black-210” under two shipping bills on September 14, from Ahmedabad’s Inland Container Depot, availing the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme. Suspecting misdeclaration, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) searched the company’s premises on September 15, 2009, and later reported that one shipment contained Acid Black-234 instead.On March 8, 2010, the DRI issued a show cause notice to the firm alleging wrongful DEPB benefits and proposed confiscation of goods. The company was also made to contribute ₹75 lakh as a pre-deposit amount towards “protection of revenue interest” as per a DRI direction. A second notice on November 3, 2011, sought recovery of ₹1.23 crore in DEPB benefits from April 2005 to April 2010, with interest and penalties.Responding to the notices on June 15, 2012, the company denied misdeclaration, stating that “Acid Black 210 and Acid Black 234 were similar and identical products, and there is no difference in their chemical composition or structure”.Despite hearings held by the Customs Department in 2012, no decision was made, leaving the matter unresolved. Left in limbo for years, the company approached the Gujarat high court in 2020, seeking quashing of the notices. Separately, in a July 10, 2013 order, the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade, Ahmedabad, ruled that the company had duly availed DEPB benefits, except for Acid Black 234 and Orange 6, ordering a recovery of ₹11,68,682 plus ₹96,316 in interest, which was duly paid.Advocate Himanshi Patwa, representing the company, argued that the customs authorities had failed to adjudicate the show-cause notices for an unreasonably long period. She pointed out that the notices dated March 8, 2010, and November 3, 2011, had remained unaddressed despite parallel proceedings by the foreign trade office.Hearing the matter on March 7, the court said that the notice from the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade, Ahmedabad, was largely the same as the show-cause notices issued by the Customs Authority.Citing the prolonged delay, the HC quashed the notices saying: “The impugned show-cause notices have remained pending for more than 15 years and 13 years, respectively. Considering the aforesaid decisions, this Court has no hesitation in holding that due to an inordinately long lapse of time, the impugned show-cause notices dated 08.03.2010 and 03.11.2011 can no longer remain pending for adjudication and must be quashed and set aside on that score alone.”