The Gujarat High Court, in an unusual and poetic gesture, cited the evocative lyrics of Pink Floyd’s Time while delivering a ruling that quashed two-decade-old show cause notices. The court’s decision, which resonated beyond legal circles, was a response to long-pending and unadjudicated notices issued by the Customs Department against a company engaged in manufacturing and exporting dyes and chemicals.
A division bench comprising Justices Bhargav Karia and DN Ray invoked the legendary band’s lyrics in their March 7 judgment (uploaded on March 25) to emphasize the passage of time and the lapse in due process. The ruling opened with Roger Waters’ haunting lines:
The case involved Rohan Dyes and Intermediates Limited, which had filed a special civil application seeking to quash two showcause notices issued by the Customs Department—one in March 2010 and another in November 2011—concerning alleged wrongful claims of Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) benefits.
The dispute originated in September 2009, when the company exported "Synthetic Organic Dyes Acid Black-210" under two shipping bills from Ahmedabad’s Inland Container Depot, availing DEPB incentives. Following an inspection by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), it was alleged that one of the shipments contained Acid Black-234 instead of Acid Black-210, leading to accusations of misdeclaration.
Subsequent showcause notices sought to recover DEPB benefits and impose penalties. The first notice, issued in 2010, proposed a pre-deposit of ₹75 lakh, while the second, in 2011, demanded ₹1.23 crore, covering DEPB claims from April 2005 to April 2010, along with interest and penalties.
In its defense, the company argued that Acid Black-210 and Acid Black-234 were chemically similar and structurally identical, with no substantive difference between them. The Joint Director of Foreign Trade, Ahmedabad, had already ruled in 2013 that DEPB benefits were valid except for two specific dye variants—Acid Black-234 and Orange-6—ordering a recovery of ₹11.68 lakh plus interest, which the company promptly paid.
Despite this, the Customs Department’s showcause notices remained unadjudicated for over a decade. Advocate Himanshi Patwa, representing the company, contended that customs officials had failed to act in a timely manner and had pursued "parallel proceedings" without resolution. She urged the court to quash the outdated notices, arguing that further adjudication after such a long delay was untenable.
The court observed that government counsel did not effectively counter the arguments. Finding that the notices were "substantially similar" to the Foreign Trade order and had remained unresolved for 15 and 13 years, the bench ruled them invalid due to excessive delay. Concluding its judgment in favor of the company, the court stated:
"Accordingly, the petition succeeds, and the impugned notices are hereby quashed and set aside."
By intertwining law with music, the Gujarat High Court’s ruling not only reinforced the importance of timely legal proceedings but also made a rare and striking cultural reference—one that underscored the inescapable passage of time.
