Delhi High Court Imposes ₹50K Costs On Customs For “Harassing” Companies Importing Body Massagers

The Delhi High Court has slammed the Customs Department for “unnecessarily harassing” two entities involved in import of body massagers.Petitioners' import goods were confiscated for alleged mis-declaration of sex toys as body massagers. While ordering their provisional release, the Court had previously asked the Department to come up with a uniform policy permitting or prohibiting the import of such products.The Department however sought a review of this direction.A division bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Shail Jain noted that similar products of other companies, including Reckitt Benckiser, were not stopped by the Customs.Thus it was of the view that the review petitions completely lack merit and the Department is harassing the Petitioners for no reason.Customs argued that the Petitioners' imported products would require a license/certificate by the Drug Controller General of India and an Extended Producer Responsibility Registration Certificate (EPR Certificate) under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022.The Court however noted that the Department had clearly concealed from it, the material which was in favour of the Petitioners.It noted that as per Question 51 in FAQs published by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (Medical Devices Division)— massagers intended for soothing or general wellness purpose and not for any therapeutic purpose, do not require any approval under the Medical Device Rules, 2017.Insofar as EPR certificate is concerned, a Public Notice of 2023 permits EPR certificate applications to be filed even after the goods are released.Accordingly, the review petitions were dismissed subject to cost of Rs.25,000/- in each of the petitions.Appearance: Ms. Piyushi Garg, Mr. Ananay Chopra, Mr. Ajay Kr Yadav, Mr. Chandravijay Sharma, Mr. Hardik Saxena & Mr. Rajat Yadav, Advs. for Petitioner; Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, SSC with Ms. Drishti Rawal, Mr. Mayur Goyal & Mr. Sarthak Srivastava, Advs. for RespondentsCase title: Techsync v. The Superintendent Of Customs Siib Acc Imports And Ors (and connected petition)Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1603Case no.: W.P.(C) 3542/2025 (and connected petition)Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Imposes ₹50K Costs On Customs For “Harassing” Companies Importing Body Massagers

Kapil Dhyani

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