Confiscation of 32,049 US dollars carried in hand baggage set aside for fresh hearing
Customs officers seized foreign currency from a traveller arriving from the United States and later confiscated it with a Rs 10 lakh penalty. The High Court recorded that the show-cause notice and order were never served at the traveller's disclosed overseas address. It quashed the confiscation order and remanded the case for a fresh hearing.
This page records what the cited court, tribunal and government records say happened. Findings belong to the court or authority that made them; this register adds none of its own. Names of private individuals are withheld unless a naming gate clears them.
How we verify →The 2023 confiscation and penalty stand quashed and the case is remanded for fresh adjudication after hearing.
What happened
The High Court recorded that the traveller arrived from Atlanta on 06.10.2022 carrying 32049 USD in hand baggage for repair of an ancestral home.
Customs said the currency was seized during immigration and a show-cause notice was issued, but the traveller had returned to the United States and did not receive it.
The High Court recorded that the department admitted the notice returned undelivered as insufficient address and then affixed it on the Custom House notice board.
The High Court held this was a gross violation of natural justice because the overseas address in the statement and passport was not used, and it remanded the matter for a fresh order within twelve weeks.
What the record says
“It is not in dispute that the impugned foreign currency was seized on arrival of the petitioner on 06.10.2022 and the panchnama was also carried out at the time of seizure.”
C/SCA/20637/2023, order dated 20/03/2025, para 6 — read the full text
A peaceful economic act
The state seized and confiscated foreign currency only for being carried outside the authorised-dealer system, with no victim, violence, fraud or other charge.
What we could not confirm
Airport city is inferred from Ahmedabad Customs and Air Intelligence Unit; the judgment does not print the airport name in the extracted text. No 2026 Gujarat forex judgment with foreign currency was found.