[Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won’t do, Customs to burn ‘wrong’ India map

[Prashant Iyengar]

http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html

Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map

Anubhuti Vishnoi

Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST

NEW DELHI, MARCH 5
As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of
India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried in a
foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by a
40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away with
a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others who have
to see all their printed material burnt.

Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network.

That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial
platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's New
Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its headquarters
in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, it received a
show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in contravention of the
Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," imposition of a penalty of Rs
5,000 for the offence and, worse, information that the entire
consignment would be burnt.

Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of Delhi
airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a month and a
half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the 75-page brochures,
it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world map showing the firm's
international network. The map showed India's international boundary
with Pakistan as the world sees it (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir)
and so was deemed "neither authentic nor correct."

A show-cause was sent on February 22.

"They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn the
entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as
incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is
spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will
have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be
commercially distributing these and only planned to use it internally
and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients has not
helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major loss of time
for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the agency's senior
executive.

He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had been
importing such maps for six years now.

"While we had maps showing our global network imported every year,
these were physical maps. This time political maps were also published
and that is what is holding back the consignment. However, the intent
is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on our part", the
executive said.

Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is fully
within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General of India
can be published. If the map published in any printed material that is
imported does not have that clearance, it is liable to be confiscated
and destroyed under Section 11 of the Customs Act. It is fully within
our purview to detain such material, issue show cause notice to the
party importing it and to impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High
court order on this issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare
its inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done
for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to
destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical),
Customs department, IGI airport.

In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes
incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High
Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of globes
or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly.