Circular 35/2017-Customs

Detention Is Not Seizure: Gujarat High Court Says Customs Cannot Sidestep the Section 110(2) Limitation Clock by Simply Not Passing an Order

A Toyota Land Cruiser sat in DRI custody for over a year on the strength of nothing more than a panchnama, while the department waited out the writ petition before finally issuing a seizure order — and then a show-cause notice timed to fall just inside the limitation period it measured from that late order. The Gujarat High Court was not persuaded: detention without a recorded order under Section 110 is not seizure, the limitation clock does not wait on the department's convenience, and the DRI's account of why it had not acted sooner did not survive the Court's own record.