AHMEDABAD: It’s not often that a courtroom judgment begins with lyrics from a rock anthem, but the Gujarat high court channelled Pink Floyd’s timeless lyrics to highlight the prolonged inaction of the customs department in adjudicating two show-cause notices issued to a company over a decade ago. The court not only quashed the notices but also delivered a sharp rebuke to the authorities for letting the case linger for years without resolution.
A bench comprising Justice Bhargav Karia and Justice D N Ray opened its judgment with a verse from Pink Floyd’s song “Time” from the 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon”:
“And then one day you find,
Ten years have got behind you,
No one told you when to run,
You missed the starting gun…”
The case involves Rohan Dyes and Intermediates Ltd, which had exported dyes and chemicals in 2009 under the duty entitlement pass book (DEPB) scheme. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) later conducted searches and found discrepancies in the declared product details, prompting the issuance of a show-cause notice in 2010 proposing confiscation of goods.
The customs department followed up with two additional show-cause notices in 2010 and 2011, but then left them in limbo. Frustrated by the prolonged delay, the company moved the high court in 2020, seeking to have the notices quashed on the grounds of inaction.
Despite personal hearings held in 2012, no progress was made, leaving the case hanging for over a decade. Taking a dim view of this inordinate delay, the court quashed the notices and observed, “The impugned SCNs have remained pending for more than 15 years and 13 years respectively. Considering the aforesaid decisions, this Court has no hesitation in holding that due to an inordinately long lapse of time, the impugned show-cause notices dated 08.03.2010 and 03.11.2011 can no longer remain pending for adjudication and must be quashed and set aside on that score alone.”
