The facts of the case are that the petitioners were engaged in the manufacture of gold, platinum and silver imitation jewellery which was exported for international buyers.
Sometimes, the jewellery would remain unsold for various reasons which the foreign buyers would resell back to petitioner on an outright purchase basis.
The imported finished unsold jewellery was then melted and the precious metal derived from it was used for the manufacture of fresh jewellery.
The manufacturing units of the petitioners were located within the Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ).
SEEPZ is a notified export processing zone and is covered by the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005 (SEZ Act).
The Government of India had issued a notification in 2006, declaring that SEEPZ will be deemed to be a port under the Customs Act and the Special Economic Zones (Customs Procedure) Regulations, 2003 would not apply to it.
Source: Barandbench
