DRI guilty of illegal detention

The Delhi High Court last week asked the Customs authorities to issue a detailed set of instructions, in consultation with Central Board of Excise and Customs, to avoid indefinite detention of goods illegally. In this case, Worldline Tradex Ltd vs Commissioner of Customs (Import), consignments of unbranded mobile accessories were imported. These were not cleared at the instance of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, which suspected misdeclaration by certain Delhi importers of electronic goods. However, the goods were not examined or cleared because of lack of coordination between the authorities concerned. Reasons for the detention were also not given. The court asked the authorities to take a decision within two weeks and pay the warehouse charges as the DRI had acted illegally.