Foreign Trade Policy

Voidable, Not Void: Calcutta High Court Shields an Innocent DFIA Licence Transferee from a Decade-Old Customs Demand

Comet Overseas bought a genuine, validly transferable duty-free import licence for value, through proper banking channels, years before the original licence-holder's export obligation was found to rest on falsely declared goods. The Calcutta High Court held the licence remained voidable, not void, and that an unimpeached bona fide transferee cannot be made to answer in customs duty, interest and redemption fine for a fraud committed further up the chain.