S. Rajendra Babu ORDER
1. The judgment of the Full Bench of the Bombay High Court reported in MANU/MH/0038/1985 : 1985(22)ELT644(Bom) is called in question in these appeals by special leave before us. The question which arose for consideration before the Bombay High Court related to the levy of Customs duty under the provisions of the Sea Customs Act.
2. The brief facts on which the Bombay High Court proceeded were that when the goods of the respondents entered the territorial waters of India from the foreign country as also on the day they were stored in the bonded warehouse, they were wholly exempt from payment of basic Customs duty under a notification issued by the Central Government in exercise of its powers under Section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1962. When these goods were sought to be removed from the bonded warehouse, the exemption notification had been rescinded and the exemption granted thereunder was withdrawn.
3. The case of the respondents was that on the day when the goods entered the territorial waters, that is the point of time when the taxable event under Section 12 occurred; and as the duty was nil on that day, therefore the question of paying any duty with reference to a subsequent point of time, namely, when the goods were removed from the warehouse did not arise.
4. The Bombay High Court following its earlier decision in Shawhney v. Sylvania & Laxman 77 Bom. LR 380, decided in favour of the respondents and held that as the goods were exempt from payment of tax on the day when they entered the territorial waters no Customs duty was payable.
5. In our opinion, this question is no longer res Integra. At least two decisions of this Court, namely, Bharat Surfactants (Private) Ltd. and Anr. v. Union of India and Anr. MANU/SC/0328/1989 : 1989(43)ELT189(SC) and Dhiraj Lal H. Vohra and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors. MANU/SC/0733/1993 : 1993(66)ELT551(SC) , were directly concerned with similar contention that had been raised. Dealing with the same, this Court has in clear terms come to the conclusion that what is relevant is the day on which the bill of entry in respect of goods in presented under Section 46 and in the case of........