Isn’t the Customs Commissioner a Customs officer?
You think he is; Board doesn’t. See Notification No. , dated September 5, 2006.
In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 4 and sub-section (1) of Section 5 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), the Central Board of Excise and Customs hereby appoints the Commissioner of Customs, Amritsaras an officer of Customs, and authorises him to xxxxxx
We thought that the Commissioner of Customs, Amritsar was already a customs officer but Board has appointed him as one only from 5th September 2006. What officer was he before that?
In fact Section 3 of the Customs Act specifically recognizes a Commissioner as an officer of customs when it stipulates that There shall be the following classes of officers of customs, namely :-
1. Chief Commissioners of Customs;
2. Commissioners of Customs;
3. Commissioners of Customs (Appeals);
4. Joint Commissioners of Customs;
5. Deputy Commissioners of Customs;
6. Assistant Commissioners of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs
7. such other class of officers of customs as may be appointed for the purposes of this Act.
But then doesn’t Board know that the Amritsar Customs Commissioner is an officer of Customs? Yet another case of scant respect for legislation and total absence of proof reading in the Board. When you are the law makers to the nation, the least that is expected from you is that a notification will be read by at least three people before it becomes the law of the land.
DDT is grateful to a senior officer who pointed out this lapse