The Delhi High Court has directed the Customs Dept. the release of 3 iPhones of the UAE National on payment of storage charges and redemption fee.
The bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta has observed that the Petitioner is willing to pay the redemption fine for the iPhones and prays for the gold items to be released. The gold items shall be released to the Petitioner without any storage charges. However, as the iPhones are concerned, the storage charges and redemption fee shall be payable.
The Petitioner is an UAE resident, having resident permit bearing no. 784-1993-7096546-1. The Petitioner was travelling from Dubai to Delhi, when he was intercepted and items namely one yellow metal kada of 50 gms, one yellow metal chain of 99 gms, and three iPhone 15 Pro 128 GB variant were detained.
After the items were detained, the appraisement was done and the assessable value of the detained goods was Rs.10,39,144.
The Petitioner contended that no Show Cause Notice was issued and no personal hearing was also granted to the Petitioner prior to passing of the impugned order.
The adjudicating authority passed the order by which the gold items have been absolutely confiscated. The three iPhones have been permitted to be redeemed by paying Rs. 32,000 as a redemption fee.
The Petitioner contended that the gold chain and the Kada are personal jewellery/personal effects of the Petitioner. Photographs have been placed on record to establish the same. In fact, the gold chain is stated to have been seized in a broken condition.
The court directed the customs department to release all the detained goods within a period of two weeks.
Case Details
Case Title: Chakshu Garg Versus Customs Commissioner
Case No.: W.P.(C) 5368/2025
Date: 06.05.2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Viraat Tripathi
Counsel For Respondent: Atul Tripathi
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