COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, INLAND CONTAINER DEPOT (EXPORT)TUGHLAKABAD, DELHI vs SUDHIR GULATI

Judgment text excerpt

$~30 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Date of decision: 6th October, 2025 + CUSAA 15/2021& CM APPL. 10496/2021 COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, INLAND CONTAINER DEPOT (EXPORT)TUGHLAKABAD, DELHI .....Appellant Through: Mr. Harpreet Singh, SSC with Ms. Suhani Mathur, Mr. Jai Ahuja, Mr. Sanidhya Sharma, Mr. Akshya Saxena & Ms. Shivali Saxena, Advs. versus SUDHIR GULATI .....Respondent Through: Mr. Bharat Bhushan, Ms. Nidhi Gupta & Mr. Anujay Mishra, Advs. CORAM: JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH JUSTICE SHAIL JAIN Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral) 1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode. 2. The present appeal has been filed by the Appellant under Section 130 of the Customs Act, 1962, inter alia, challenging the impugned final order dated 24th July, 2017 (hereinafter, ‘impugned order’) passed by Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereinafter, ‘CESTAT’) wherein, the issue relating to Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence (hereinafter, ‘DRI’) Officers being ‘proper officers’ or not, has been considered. 3. The impugned order was passed following the order bearing no. 54480- 54514/2017 passed by CESTAT on 29th June, 2017 in Jetlite(India) Ltd. & Ors. Vs. Commissioner of Customs (I&G), New Delhi & Ors., wherein it had directed as under: Signature Not Verified Signed By:SUNITA CUSAA 15/2021 Page 1 of 10 KUMARI Signing Date:09.10.2025 18:51:25 “3. In this connection, we note that similar issues have been dealt with in various cases by the Tribunal recently. It is held that the matters have to be remanded back to the original authority for a decision after the legal issue is settled by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. The decision of the Tribunal in one such case vide Final Order No. 53941-53942 of 2017 dated12/06/2017 is reproduced below: "During the course of arguments, the