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Dishonestly using green channel may land you in jail

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

New Delhi: Don’t use the ‘green channel’ when you touch down from abroad if you have goods on which duty is to be paid. The Supreme Court has flashed the red light for those who confidently breeze through green channels at airports even when they are carrying goods for which they need to pay duty.
    The bench of Justices S H Kapadia and B Sudershan Reddy ruled on Friday that those attempting to bring in goods through the green channel would face prosecution even if they volunteered to pay customs duty and a fine if they caught with dutiable goods.
    Justice Kapadia agreed with Solicitor General G E Vahanvati that compounding of offence—it enables offenders to escape punishment if they cough up penalty—is based on ‘principles of disclosure’ which come into force only if the declaration is honest.
    “The basic rule of disclosure underlying Section 137(3) of the act is that if there are demonstrable contradictions or inconsistencies or incompleteness in the case of the applicant, then application for compounding cannot be entertained. Applications for compounding ought to be disallowed if there are such contradictions, inconsistencies or incompleteness,’’ it said.
    This ruling came in a case of one Anil Chanana,who was intercepted by customs officials at IGI airport on August 10, 2004. A personal search revealed that he had smuggled in two pairs of diamond earrings worth Rs 1.16 crore. DUTY AT AIRPORTS SC raps ‘smuggler’, compounding authority
New Delhi: Anil Chanana was arrested at IFI airport in 2004 as he had not mentioned the diamond ear-rings in his declaration form and had aggravated the crime by taking the green channel, which is meant for those who have nothing to declare. Four days after his arrest, he voluntarily deposited the customs duty of Rs 47.72 lakh. He was later released on bail.
    In his first bail application in August 2004, he accused DRI officials of forcibly taking him through the green channel when he was intending to take the red channel. In January 2006, he moved the authorities for compounding of the offence saying that he took the green channel by oversight as he was tired. The compounding authority allowed the application, imposing an additional fine of Rs 15 lakh on Chanana. The government challenged the decision before the Delhi high court, which rejected its plea. Before the apex court, solicitor general G E Vahanvati argued that a person who knowingly makes a false declaration with regard to dutiable goods solely to evade customs duty has committed offences punishable under Section 132 and 135(1) of the Customs Act.
    Agreeing with the solicitor general, the bench said the contradictions in the two versions given by Chanana made the application for compounding of the offence liable to be rejected. While deprecating Chanana’s conduct, the SC also rapped the compounding authority for not discharging its duty of making a proper inquiry before accepting the defaulter’s request. “The compounding mechanism is to be allowed in cases of doubtful benefit to the revenue and to prevent needless proliferation of litigation and holding up collections,’’ the court said. “Compounding can’t be allowed if there are apparent contradictions, inconsistencies or incompleteness in the case of the applicant before the compounding authority. It is the duty of the compounding authority to ascertain such contradictions before ordering compounding,’’ it said. Chanana faces prosecution, and if convicted, could even go to jail.
Source TOI