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Irfan vs. Commissioner of Customs

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7357-DBDecided 2 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 16386/2025CNR: DLHC010828952025
Justice Anil Kshetarpal · Justice Shail Jain

Background

A 116-gram gold bar was seized from the petitioner at IGI Airport in December 2020 after he was intercepted crossing the Green Channel without declaring it; he gave a statement admitting the violation and recording that he did not need a show cause notice. Customs passed an Order-in-Original in June 2023 confiscating the gold bar and imposing a penalty. The petitioner did not act for years and approached the High Court only in 2025, claiming he was never served a show cause notice or given a hearing, and that he learned of the order only through a 2025 inquiry by his counsel.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the petitioner's challenge to the concluded adjudication order, including disputes over whether the statement was validly obtained and whether notice/hearing was denied, raised factual questions that ought to first be examined through the Customs Act's own statutory appeal remedy (Section 128), not through writ jurisdiction. It also found the petition suffered from unexplained delay and laches, since the petitioner admittedly knew of the seizure since 2020 and did not challenge the order for years. The petition was dismissed without any opinion on the merits of the underlying dispute, leaving those questions open for the statutory appellate forum.

Lesson Learnt

If you disagree with a customs confiscation or penalty order, pursue the statutory appeal promptly: courts routinely decline to step in through writ jurisdiction where an effective alternate remedy exists and there has been long, unexplained delay in approaching them.

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