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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court has rapped the Customs department and imposed a cost of Rs 25,000, liable to be deducted from the salary of the assistant commissioner, for “harassing” an importer and supplier of purported sex toys.
The Customs department had filed a review petition against a Delhi HC order of October 30 that had ordered provisional release of the goods after noting that the department has permitted other companies to import identical products without any objection.
In the October 30 order, the court had also instructed that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) “proceed with conducting the inter-ministerial consultation in respect of the uniform policy permitting or prohibiting import of products declared as ‘body massagers’ or sex toys,” “that would be in line with contemporary times”, after concluding that uniformity is absent.
The Customs department had justified its seizures on the ground that the importer, Techsync, had misdeclared its goods as body massagers when in fact they were sex toys, which are prohibited from import under a notification from 1964 “on the ground of being obscene products”.
While seeking a review of the October 30 order, the Customs department had argued that the imported products by Techsync and one M/s Debanjan Impex “would require a license/certificate by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)”. It was also argued that the companies had failed to provide the “Extended Producer Responsibility Registration Certificate under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, which is required since certain products were found to be battery operated”.
On the other hand, the companies had contended that as mentioned in the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (Medical Devices Division) Medical Devices, it has been stated that if a massager is “intended for soothing or general wellness purpose and not for any therapeutic purpose, then it does not come under the regulation”. It was also contended that EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) certificate can be applied for after the release of the goods.
The court of Justices Prathiba Singh and Shail Jain had also made a pointed query to the Customs department, asking if a similar products of other companies, including Reckitt Benckiser of Durex brand, have been stopped similarly to which the Customs department had responded that they were permitted to import.
The bench — making a note that “the Customs Department is clearly harassing the petitioners for no reason” and “unnecessarily”, “when clearly the earlier consignments of the petitioners were cleared with [no] objection and the consignments of various third parties were also cleared” — imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on the department, which is “ liable to be deducted from the salary of Mr Jainendra Jain, Assistant Commissioner of Customs.”
