The truck was moving between 'customs bounded' warehouses
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has slammed the state Excise Department for having illegally and without jurisdiction detained a truck carrying foreign liquor that was being transported from a duly customs bounded warehouse in Haryana to a customs bounded warehouse in Goa.
The truck in question was detained by Excise Officials at the Patradevi Checkpost on April 20, 2025 for allegedly importing liquor into the state of Goa without any documents or permission.
The High Court has ordered that the confiscated goods be handed back to the agency “to continue its journey” and narrowly stopped short of “imposing exemplary costs on the illegal action of the Commissioner of Excise.
In its petition Vallina Ventures Pvt Ltd, a company engaged in the wholesale business of import, storage and distribution of foreign liquor and in possession of a valid Importer-Exporter Code by the office of the Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, Mumbai, had purchased foreign liquor from M/s Discovery Beverages for the purpose of “customs bonded warehouse to custom bonded warehouse transfer, duly complying with the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and pursuant thereto, an approval was obtained for transfer of the said goods.”
Transfer of goods between customs bonded warehouses with the requisite permissions is considered to be movement of goods prior to ‘import’. In this case, Vallina Ventures Pvt Ltd was issued a Space Availability Certificate for Public Bonded Warehouse (PBWH) to the premises belonging to M/s Nineteenth Century Spirits Pvt. Ltd., located at Chamunda Apartments, Alto Pilerne, Bardez Goa and this Certificate was issued by the Superintendent of Customs (Bond), Marmagao Goa.
Vallina Ventures argued that, since it is in possession of importer-exporter code and had purchased goods from a vendor in Haryana under the tax invoice, depicting that the goods are being transferred from a warehouse, unless the petitioner would pay the custom duty, it cannot be said that he has brought the goods into the State of Goa. The bill of entry in favour of the petitioner was a boundary warehouse entry and only upon the payment of customs duty, when the goods are cleared, the goods are said to have been imported in the State of Goa.
“The goods of the petitioner could have said to have crossed the customs barriers, when it actually cleared the custom duty and since in the facts before us, it is evidently clear that the vehicle carrying goods was affixed with one-time lock number, by the Superintendent of Customs, Gurugram and the Form under Regulation 3 of Warehoused Goods (Removal) Regulations, 2016 was attached to the vehicle, the interference by the Excise Department was completely unwarranted and by no stretch of imagination did the Excise Authority assumed jurisdiction to himself, under Section 4 of the Goa Excise Duty Act, 1964,” the High Court bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta, said.
“It is difficult to fathom as to how the State Excise Department come into picture, as the goods of the petitioner were not being imported into the State of Goa, as the petitioner is armed with the consignment bond issued under Section 59(1) of the Customs Act, 1962,” the High Court also said.
“In our considered opinion the action initiated by respondent No.2 in issuing show cause notice is without jurisdiction and also malafide as despite knowing the fact that the vehicle was sealed and annexed with the requisite Form by the Customs Department, the Excise Department attempted to remove the goods by unsealing the same and even registered an FIR against the driver and the transport company,” the High Court also said as it proceeded to “quash and set aside the said notice as we are of the clear view that the provisions of the Goa Excise Duty Act, 1964 are not applicable to the goods in question.”
The Excise Department had claimed a major breakthrough when they claimed to have caught a Haryana registered truck at Patradevi allegedly trying to smuggle liquor into Goa saying that the consignment was worth more than a crore including brands like high-end liquor brands including Chivas Regal, Absolut Vodka, Johnnie Walker and Black Label. The driver had then told the Excise Officials that the liquor was for “Customs”.
Days after the seizure, the sub-inspector who made the seizure was transferred.
