Foreigners either wearing or carrying gold/silver ornaments worth over ₹50,000 must necessarily declare them to the officials concerned under the Customs Baggage Declaration Regulations, 2013, read with the Baggage Rules, 2016, and cannot expect to walk out of the airport through the green channel, the Madras High Court has held.
Justice C. Saravanan passed the ruling while dismissing a writ petition filed by a Sri Lankan family in 2021 seeking refund of the fine and penalty imposed on it. The family, comprising a couple, their two children, aged parents and a paternal aunt, had worn 1,594 kg of gold jewellery when they landed at Chennai airport on May 6, 2017.
Apart from the jewellery, the family had also bought 112 bottles of liquor from a duty-free shop and attempted to walk through the green channel without making a declaration. Therefore, the judge agreed with advocate M. Santhanaraman, representing the Customs, that the petitioners were liable to punishment.
