ITEM NO.301(PH) COURT NO.2 SECTION PIL S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO(s). 657 OF 1995 RESEARCH FOUNDN. FOR SCIENCE Petitioner(s) VERSUS U O I & ANR. Respondent(s) (With appln.(s) for impleadment and impleading party and directions and exemption from filing O.T. and clarification/directions and office report) WITH S.L.P.(C) NO. 16175 of 1997 - (With appln.(s) for ex-Parte stay and impleading party) Civil Appeal NO. 7660 of 1997 - (With office report) Date: 18/07/2005 These matters were called on for hearing today. CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE Y.K. SABHARWAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.H. KAPADIA For Petitioner(s) in WP(C)657 Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Adv. in SLP(C)16175 Ms. B. Vijayalakshmi Menon, Adv. in CA 7660 Mr. P. Parmeswaran, Adv. For Respondent(s) For JN Port Trust Mr. R. Mohan, ASG Mr. Ajay Sharma, Adv. For Bombay Port Mr. G.E. Vahanvati, SG Trust Mr. Buddy A. Ranganadhan, Adv. for M/s. J.B.D. & Co., Advs. For Min. of Env. Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Adv. For Customs Mr. A. Subba Rao, Adv. Ms. Sushma Suri, Adv. For DPCC & DSIDC Mr. D.N. Goburdhan, Adv. Ms. Pinky Anand, Adv. Ms. Geeta Luthra, Adv. ..2/- .2. For CPCB Mr. Vijay Panjwani, Adv. For Maharashtra Mr. Mukesh Verma, Adv. Poll.Con.Board Mr. Manish Shanker, Adv. Mr. Yash Pal Dhingra, Adv. For MP Poll. Ms. Yogmaya Agnihotri, Adv. Control Board Mr. Rohit K. Singh, Adv. Mr. D.K. Sinha, Adv. For Orissa PCB Mr. Janaranjan Das, Adv. Mr. Swetaketu Mishra, Adv. For Pondicherry Poll. Mr. V.G. Pragasam, Adv. Control Committee For WBPCB Mr. R. Mohan, ASG Mr. V.G. Pragasam, Adv. For State of Mr. Anil Shrivastava, Adv. Arunachal Pradesh Mr. Saurabh Shrivastava, Adv. Ms. Bano Shree, Adv. For State of Assam Ms. Krishna Sarma, Adv. Mr. V.K. Sidharthan, Adv. Ms. Amrita Bhattacharya, Adv. for M/s. Corporate Law Group, Advs. For State of Bihar Mr. Kumar Rajesh Singh, Adv. for Mr. B.B. Singh, Adv. For State of Goa Ms. A. Subhashini, Adv. For State of Gujarat Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Adv. & Mizoram Ms. Sadhna Sandhu, Adv. For State of Haryana Mr. Ajay Siwach, Adv. Mr. Kapil Dev Singh, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Dahiya, Adv. Mr. T.V. George, Adv. For State of Mr. S.S. Shinde, Adv. Maharashtra for Mr. V.N. Raghupathy, Adv. For State of Manipur Mr. KH. Nobin Singh, Adv. For State of Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, Adv. Meghalaya For State of Nagaland Mr. U. Hazarika, Adv. Mr. Satya Mitra, Adv. Ms. Sumita Hazarika, Adv. For State of Mr. Aruneshwar Gupta, Addl.Adv.Gen. Rajasthan Mr. Naveen Kumar Singh, Adv. ..3/- .3. For State of Sikkim Mr. A. Mariarputham, Adv. Ms. Aruna Mathur, Adv. for M/s. Arputham, Aruna & Co., Advs. For State of TN Mr. R. Ayyam Perumal, Adv. Mr. S. Vallinayagam, Adv. Mr. Sewa Ram, Adv. For State of UP Ms. Savitri Pandey, Adv. Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Adv. For State of Tripura Mr. Gopal Singh, Adv. Mr. Rituraj Biswas, Adv. Mr. Mukul Rohtagi, Sr.Adv. Ms. Jayashri Wad, Adv. Mr. Ashish Wad, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar, Adv. Mr. Priyank, Adv. for M/s. J.S. Wad & Co., Advs. For M/s. Versatile Mr. Chandrakanta Nayak, Adv. Export for Mr. Atishi Dipankar, Adv. For M/s. Shivpriya Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Sr.Adv. Overseas Mr. Lalit Bhasin, Adv. Ms. Nina Gupta, Adv. Ms. Shanta Chhadha, Adv. Ms. Shina Lakshmi, Adv. Ms. Neelam Singh, Adv. Ms. Meha Kiran, Adv. Ms. Bina Gupta, Adv. For M/s. Royal Impex Ms. Sushila Rani, Adv. Ms. Reena Sinha, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Nayyar, Adv. For M/s. Indochem Mr. Krishnan Venugopal, Adv. India Mr. Anshu Mahajar, Adv. Ms. Bina Gupta, Adv. For M/s. Ludhiana Mr. Nidhesh Gupta, Adv. Refineries Mr. Vinod Shukla, Adv. Ms. S. Janani, Adv. For M/s. Eleven Star Mr. D.N. Mishra, Adv. Mr. R.K. Joshi, Adv. Mr. Sushil Kr. Jain, Adv. Mr. U.N. Goyal, Adv. Mr. B. Krishna Prasad, Adv. ..4/- .4. Mr. Ashok Mathur, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar Jha,Adv. Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, Adv. Mr. K.B. Rohtagi, Adv. Mr. Shakil Ahmed Syed, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Misra, Adv. Mr. T.V. Ratnam, Adv. Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, Adv. Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, Adv. Ms. Urmila Sirur, Adv. for M/s. Sinha & Das, Adv. Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, Adv. Mr. Javed Mahmud Rao, Adv. Ms. Vibha Datta Makhija, Adv. Mr. Pramod Swarup, Adv. Mr. K.K. Gupta, Adv. Mr. Pramod Dayal, Adv. UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Writ Petition (C) No. 657/95, SLP(C)No.16175/97 and C.A.No.7660/97 : In regard to payment, in future the cost of incineration in terms of the or- der dated 5.1.2005 shall be paid by Bank Draft in favour of the Commission of Cus- toms, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Nhava Sheva. ..5/- .5. Today an affidavit has been filed in the Court by the Additional Director, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi regarding change of Member Secretary of the Monitoring Committee constituted by this Court vide or- der dated 14th October, 2003 under the Chairmanship of Dr. G. Thyagarajan and Dr. N.H. Hosabettu, the then Director (HSMD) as the Member Secretary of the Commit- tee. It is stated in the aforesaid affidavit that Dr. N.H. Hosabettu has now been as- signed new responsibilities and has been posted as Director in the Impact Assessment Division, therefore, Mr. M. Subba Rao, Additional Director HSM Division, Ministry of Environment and Forests may be permitted to act as the Member Secretary of the Monitoring Committee instead of Dr. N.H. Hosabettu. We permit Mr. M. Subba Rao, Additional Director, HSM Division, Min- istry of Environment and Forests to act as Member Secretary of the Monitoring Com- mittee in place of Dr. N.H. Hosabettu. Mr. Joseph Dominic, working as Chief Commissioner of Customs, Jawa- harlal Nehru Customs House, along with his affidavit filed on 22.6.2005, placed on record the details of consignments of which the importers have not filed bills. The said details were furnished to the Monitoring Committee as per the said affidavit along with letter dated 17.2.2005. Details of all the importers collected from the cus- todians is as per Annexure `B'. In the letter dated 17.2.2005 addressed ..6/- .6. by Commissioner of Customs (I), Jawaharlal Nehru Custom House to the Monitoring Committee, it has been inter alia stated that the goods have been mis-declared with a view to circumvent import trade control provisions. Consequently, the same had been rendered liable for confiscation under the provisions of the Act. We find that some of the imports took place as early as in the year 1992. Be that as it may, we direct imme- diate initiation of confiscation proceedings in accordance with law and also immediate culmination thereof. The Chief Commissioner of Customs shall also file an affidavit explaining in detail the circumstances under which the goods in question remained unattended without initiation of any proceedings for the last so many years. As per the docu- ments now filed, about 209 containers fall in this category. The affidavit shall also place on record the action, if any, which is proposed to be taken in case the inaction was the result of some of the officers of the department. This affidavit shall be filed within a period of two weeks. List the matters after two weeks. I.A.NO.20 : Heard Mr. Ranjit Kumar, learned Senior counsel for the applicant. The interlocutory application is dismissed. Contempt Petition : Some of the parties have not been served. We direct the Chief Commis- sioner of Customs, Jawaharlal Nehru Custom ..7/- .7. House to ensure the service on all the unserved parties. For M/s. Shivapria Overseas Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi and M/s. Shalimar Chemical Industries Private Ltd., Mumbai, their respective learned counsel accept Notice. Both the parties shall file their replies within two weeks. On behalf of M/s. Shivapriya Overseas Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Ranjit Ku- mar, learned Senior counsel, on instructions from Mr. Dinesh Chandra, Director of the company, who is said to be present in the Court, requested that the company may be granted six months' time to make the payment on an undertaking being given to this Court for due payment during the said period. Let the said party file reply along with proper affidavit and state therein what is required to be said, including the as- pect of time to make payment. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of M/s. Versatile Export, Mumbai, M/s. Royal Impex, Mumbai and M/s. Indochem India, Mumbai also accept notice. Only three parties remain to be served in the contempt petition, namely, (i) M/s. Pioneer Petrochem Products, Mumbai, (ii) M/s. Central Steel and General In- dustries, Jaipur and M/s. Valley International (P) Ltd., Delhi, the Chief Commission- er of Customs would ensure their service. List the contempt petition after two weeks. Sarita (V.P. Tyagi) Court Master