CWP No. 18784 of 2011 -: 1 :- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 18784 of 2011 Date of decision: December 06, 2011. M/s Radhey Shyam Ratan Lal ... Petitioner v. Union of India and another ... Respondent(s) CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.S. SANDHAWALIA Present: Shri Pradeep Jain and Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Advocates, for the petitioner. Hemant Gupta , J. (Oral): Challenge in the present writ petition is to an order passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (in short the Tribunal), dated 19.9.2011, whereby the petitioner was directed to deposit a sum of Rs.25.00 lacs towards duty demanded within 12 weeks from the date of the order while deciding an application of the petitioner for waiver of condition of pre-deposit of duty, penalty and interest. The petitioner is an importer and is stated to have imported cloves from countries like Madagascar, Indonesia, Tanzania, declaring the transaction value at US$ 2000/2050 per metric ton. The assessing authority valued the said import @ US$ 3000 PMT on 27.11.2009 and imposed duty of Rs.62,25,649/-. The appeal against the said order was dismissed by the CWP No. 18784 of 2011 -: 2 :- Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals), Delhi vide order dated 9.8.2010. The petitioner, still aggrieved, filed an appeal before the Tribunal. The Tribunal, on an application of waiver of pre-deposit, directed the petitioner to deposit Rs.25.00 lacs towards duty demand. Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that the petitioner has imported Grade III cloves and, therefore, the transaction value of such cloves cannot be equated with superior grade of cloves. In support of such contention, the petitioner has referred to the Market Brief published in the year 2006 by the International Trade Centre, UNCTAD/WTO. It will be a question of fact whether the cloves imported by the petitioner are of Grade III or Grade I quality. The adjudicating authority and the first appellate authority have returned a finding that there is mismatch in the quality in the invoice and the transaction value. The learned Tribunal, in its discretion, has called upon the petitioner to deposit Rs.25.00 lacs towards the duty demand as against the duty imposed by the Assessing Officer as Rs.62,25,649/-. The Tribunal has returned a prima-facie finding that the invoices are issued by a trader who is not normally trading in cloves and is located in a country other than the country of origin of cloves. The Tribunal has recorded a finding that prima-facie there is reason to reject the genuineness of the prices declared especially when the market value prevalent at that time was more than US$ 3000 PMT and such an opinion has been made basis to reject the transaction value declared by the petitioner. We do not find that the reasoning given by the Tribunal suffers CWP No. 18784 of 2011 -: 3 :- from any patent illegality or irregularity. The Tribunal, in its judicial discretion, has called upon the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs.25.00 lacs which cannot be said to be wholly unjustifiable in the facts of the case. In view of the said fact, we do not find any merit in the present petition. The same is dismissed. We may state that the above reasoning recorded by us is only for the purpose of deciding the present writ petition and shall not be taken into consideration by the Tribunal while deciding the appeal on merits. At this stage, learned counsel for the petitioner prays that the petitioner should be granted some time to deposit the amount of Rs.25.00 lacs as called upon in the order dated 19.9.2011. Keeping in view the facts of the case, we allow the petitioner to deposit the said amount within two months from today. [ Hemant Gupta ] Judge [ G.S. Sandhawalia ] December 06, 2011. Judge kadyan