Penalty for transporting goods into Sikkim in contravention of Section 60

(1) If any goods are seized under section 68, the authorised officer may, by an order in writing, impose upon the person from whom such goods are seized, or the owner of such goods, where particulars of the owner of such goods are available, or where there is no claimant for such goods at the time of such seizure, any person who subsequently establishes his claim of ownership or possession of such goods, after giving such person or owner, as the case may be, a reasonable opportunity of being heard, a penalty of a sum not exceeding fifty percentum of the value of such goods. (2) A penalty imposed under sub-section (1) shall be paid by the person or the owner of goods, as the case may be, into a Government Treasury or the State Bank of Sikkim or any other bank as may be notified by the Government by such date as may be specified by the authorised officer in a notice to be issued for this purpose, and the date so specified shall not be earlier than fifteen days from the date of the notice: Provided that the authorised officer may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, extend the date of payment of the penalty for such period as he may think fit. (3) The goods seized under section 68 shall be released in the prescribed manner on payment of the penalty imposed under sub-section (1); if the penalty is not paid by the date specified in the notice issued under sub-section (2), the authorised officer may, in such manner and subject to such restrictions and conditions as may be prescribed, sell the goods seized under section 68 in open auction and remit the sale proceeds thereof to a Government Treasury. (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub section (3), - (a) the officer before whom an application for revision under section 75 against an order for imposition of penalty referred to in sub-section (1), is pending, or (b) The Commissioner, where there is no application for revision under section 76, may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, direct release of the goods seized under section 68 on such terms and conditions as he may deem fit. (5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub section (4), the Commissioner may where the goods seized under section 68 are, - (a) of perishable nature, or (b) required to be used by a specified date, sell such goods in open auction after the expiry of such period as he may consider fit and proper, if he is of opinion that such goods may become unusable or unsaleable on detention or destroy such goods if the said goods become unusable before the sale in open auction actually takes place. (6) The proceeds of sale of the goods referred to in sub-section (4) or sub-section (5) shall be applied for payment in the following order of priority: - (a) firstly, for incidental charges, if any, relating to auction sale of such goods; (b) secondly, for expenses, if any, for storage of such goods; (c) thirdly, for penalty imposed under sub-section (1); and the balance of the proceeds of sale, if any, shall be paid to the owner of the goods or if his particulars are not available, to the persons from whom such goods were seized under section 68, upon application within one year from the date of sale or within such further period as may be allowed by the Commissioner for cause shown to his satisfaction. (7) Any amount of penalty imposed under sub-section (1), which remains unpaid after the date specified in the notice issued under sub-section (2) or which cannot be recovered in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (4), sub-section (6) or sub-section (7), shall be recoverable in accordance with provisions of section 45.