All Customs Orders and Notices Must Properly Mention Official’s Name and Designation: High Court

The Delhi High Court has criticised the Customs Department for passing orders without a proper signature and the names of the official passing the order. The Court directed that all future customs orders must clearly mention the name and designation of the officer who passed them.

The case involved a petitioner, M/s Guru Kirpa Enterprises, an energy drink trader. The petitioner had purchased some consignment of energy drinks and paid Cess on them. However, the company forgot to report the cess in the Shipping bills, due to which he was unable to claim any refund on the cess. When he came to know about it, he filed a representation requesting to amend its shipping bills from April 2024 under section 148 of the Customs Act. However, the Customs authority rejected the request, saying that the cess was not declared on the e-sanchit.

During the earlier hearing, the petitioner had submitted that the order was not passed by the official who had digitally signed it, but it was signed by some other officer.

In response, the Customs officer said that he passed the order, but due to a heavy workload, he asked his superintendent to communicate the order. The court rejected this excuse and said that the orders must be signed by the actual officer who is passing the order, and the communication of the order can be done by anyone, but the name and the designation of the official passing the order must be mentioned in the order or the show cause notice. The court said that failing to do the same erodes the accountability of officials.

The court also cited the decision of the High Court in Qamar Jahan v. Union of India, which had approved the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for baggage cases, where it was said that the name of the officer must be mentioned along with the designation. The High Court said that this ruling is not just limited to baggage cases, but all orders and communications issued by the Customs Authority.