New Delhi, April 1 -- The Supreme Court has directed the Union government to boost testing infrastructure and laboratory capabilities, underscoring the risks of relying on incomplete test results in cases involving confiscation and penalties.

A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh issued the directive in a ruling dated March 28, after it found that three premier laboratories failed to conclusively determine whether an imported oil consignment was High-Speed Diesel (HSD) or Base Oil. HSD is a controlled substance that only state trading enterprises can import.

Emphasising the need for state-of-the-art laboratory facilities capable of conducting tests on all required parameters, the court closed customs proceedings against...