Customs | Oral Waiver Of SCN Untenable In Law, Continued Detention Of Goods Illegal: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that continued detention or seizure of goods by the Customs Department would be untenable in law, where the Show Cause Notice or the personal hearing have been waived via an oral waiver.A division bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Shail Jain was dealing with a challenge to detention of Petitioner's gold chain weighing 54 grams.Briefly put, Petitioner has residence certificate of Dubai. Her gold jewellery, which is stated to be a personal effect item, was detained by the Customs upon her arrival to India on 16th April, 2025. She claimed that no Show Cause Notice (SCN) was issued to her.The Department on the other hand claimed that the Petitioner had orally waived her right to SCN and personal hearing. Despite that, a personal hearing notice was issued to her on 16th October, 2025 with the hearing being fixed for 27th October, 2025 or 29th October, 2025 or 31st October, 2025.The Court at the outset observed that Petitioner's case is bonafide inasmuch as no Show Cause Notice was issued by merely relying on the oral waiver that was obtained from the Petitioner. “Customs Department cannot rely on oral waiver of show cause notice as the same would be contrary to the requirements of Section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962,” it said.Reliance was placed on Amit Kumar v. The Commissioner of Customs (2025) and Makhinder Chopra vs Commissioner of Customs (2025) where it was held that if an oral SCN waiver has to be agreed to by the person concerned, the same ought to be in the form of a proper declaration, consciously signed by the person concerned.The Court held, “Once the goods are detained, it is mandatory to issue a Show Cause Notice and afford a personal hearing to the Petitioner. The time prescribed under Section 110 of Customs Act, 1962, is a period of six months. Since the said period of 6 months has lapsed in the present case and no extension thereto has been sought by the Department, the continued detention of the gold chain of the Petitioner is impermissible.”Accordingly, it ordered that the gold chain of the Petitioner be released.Appearance: Mr. S. Vijay Kanth and Mr. Utkarsh Tripathi, Advs. for Petitioner; Mr. Shubham Tyagi, SSC, CBIC with Ms. Navruti Ojha, Adv. for RespondentCase title: Pavneet Oberoi v. The Commissioner Of CustomsCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1597Case no.: W.P.(C) 16345/2025Click here to read order

Customs | Oral Waiver Of SCN Untenable In Law, Continued Detention Of Goods Illegal: Delhi High Court

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