Logistics, supply chain and trade
The movement of goods carries its own body of law: carrier liability for cargo lost or damaged, customs enforcement and appeals, warehousing and freight contracts, and the export-import compliance that sits under DGFT licensing.
Reviewed
What this covers
- Carrier liability and cargo damage disputes
- Customs enforcement and CESTAT proceedings
- DGFT licensing and export-import compliance
- Warehousing and logistics contract disputes
- Cross-border trade and FEMA compliance
- Freight and demurrage arbitration
- Insurance claims for cargo and transit loss
- GST disputes in logistics and supply chain operations
The notes behind these capabilities
A common carrier of goods by road in India is responsible under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007 for loss or damage in transit unless a cause listed in section 17 applies, but section 10(1) limits the liability to an amount fixed by rule, which rule 12(1) of the Carriage by Road Rules, 2011 makes, for total loss, ten times the freight, never above the value declared in the goods forwarding note. The limit falls away only if the consignor undertook to pay a higher risk rate under section 11. No suit lies without written notice within 180 days of booking (section 16), and suit lies within three years under Article 10 or 11 of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963, from the loss or from when the goods ought to have been delivered. The Act repealed the Carriers Act, 1865, and an export under one multimodal transport contract, by two or more modes, can bring in the Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993.
The Finance Act, 2025 inserted sub-sections (1B) and (1C) into section 18 of the Customs Act, 1962 from 29 March 2025. A provisional assessment must now be finalised within two years, extendable once by one year, and every file already pending on 29 March 2025 has its two years counted from that day, so the oldest of them must be finalised by 29 March 2027. The deadline binds the proper officer; the importer or exporter carries the bond, the security and the interest until it is met.
Reference
Regulators in this sector
Forums
Practice areas that apply
- Boardroom and corporate
- Transaction advisory
- Capital markets
- Contracts and procurement
- IP and licensing
- Banking, SARFAESI and DRT
- Insolvency
- Civil disputes
- PMLA
- Projects and land
- Employment
- Taxation and fiscal
- White-collar and cyber defence
- Money recovery
- Foreign exchange (FEMA)
- Prevention of sexual harassment (POSH)
- Employee's Compensation
- GST disputes
Advocates in this sector
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