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TMI Blog2009 (11) TMI 341X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to finds a solution to reduce the hardships of the traveling public without compromising the security/intelligence concerns required to be appreciated. - 7914/09 - - - Dated:- 24-11-2009 - RAVEENDRAN R. V. and RADHAKRISHNAN K. S. JJ. Judgment: Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated June 17, 2008 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in W. P. No. 27344 of 2007. Order R. V. Raveendran J. - Leave granted. Heard. 2. The case of the appellant in brief is as follows: The appellant, a computer engineer, who was lucratively employed in the United States of America for more than ten years, returned to India with his earnings and took up employment in Hyderabad in the year 2006. He wanted to buy a property at Chennai. But his attempts were not fruitful. He was advised that if he wanted to buy a good plot, he must be ready to pay a considerable part of the sale price in cash as advance to the prospective seller. When the appellant ultimately identified a prospective seller, he wanted to go to Chennai with a large sum and finalise the deal. He contacted the Reserve Bank of India, ICICI Bank (his banker) and the airport authorities to find ou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s reports disclosed his name, profession, his native place in Tamil Nadu, his place of employment. The news report also stated that he was not able to satisfactorily explain the source of the amount and that the officials had found discrepancies between what was drawn by him from the bank and what he was carrying. Ultimately, two months later, after completing the investigation and verification, as nothing was found to be amiss or irregular, the seized money was returned to him, but without any interest. 3. The appellant lists the following four acts on the part of the income-tax officials as objectionable and violative of his fundamental rights: (i) his illegal detention for more than 15 hours at the Chennai airport; (ii) illegal seizure of the cash carried by him despite his explanation about the source and legitimacy of the funds with supporting documents ; (iii) failure to return the seized amount for more than two months without any justification ; and (iv) prematurely and maliciously disclosing to the media a completely false picture of the incident. The said acts, according to him, tarnished his reputation among his friends, relatives and acquaintances, by being dubbed as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iated at Hyderabad. Therefore, his writ petition ought not to have been rejected on the ground of want of jurisdiction. 6. Normally, we would have set aside the order and remitted the matter to the High Court for decision on the merits. But from the persuasive sub-missions of the appellant, who appeared in person on various dates of hearing, two things stood out. Firstly, it was clear that the main object of the petition was to ensure that at least in future, passengers like him are not put to unnecessary harassment or undue hardship at airports. He wants a direction for issuance of clear guidelines and instructions to the inspecting officers and introduction of definite and efficient verification/investigation procedures. He wants changes in the present protocol where the officers are uncertain of what to do and seek instructions and indefinitely wait for clearances from higher ups for each and every routine step, resulting in the detention of passengers for hours and hours. In short, he wants the enquiries, verifications and investigations to be efficient, passenger-friendly and courteous. Secondly, he wants the Department/concerned officers to acknowledge that he was unnecessa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... recording the statement may not wait for the conclusion of the statement before taking steps to obtain warrant of authorization from the concerned authority. As soon as the information is sufficient to infer that the assets are unaccounted, the concerned authority may be contacted and the information may be furnished to him for obtaining warrant of authorisation. (iii) For issuing such warrant of authorisation, the Director of Income-tax (Investigation) should carry blank forms and his official seal. Before issuing such authorisations, he may try to obtain the administrative approval from the Director General of Income-tax (Investigation) telephonically. In case he is not able to contact him, he should still issue the authorisation under his statutory powers without loss of time. Such warrant of authorisation may be communicated expeditiously. (iv) The statement may be recorded in the language which the passenger understands. The statement should invariably be read to him before asking for his signature. He should be given full opportunity to go through the statement, questions as well as answers, before putting his signature and to make amendments under his signature if there ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y required to be verified. He submitted that two factors necessitated the appellant's prolonged stay at the airport for purposes of enquiries and verification and the seizure of the cash: (i) The appellant had given contradictory statements regarding the proposed purchase of land by him. Initially he had stated that the deal was yet to be finalised. But the documents/investigation showed that he had already paid some advance to the seller by cheque. (ii) There was some variation between the denominations of cash in the possession of the appellant and the cash withdrawn from the ICICI Bank. The learned Solicitor-General submitted that the appellant is not free from blame, as by his unwise and rather naive decision to carry such a large sum of money, he creates suspicion. He also pointed out that the appellant put himself to personal risk by carrying such an amount of cash. He pointed out that in the circumstances, the delay and seizure were inevitable. 10. We are in agreement with the submissions of the learned Solicitor-General. When the bona fides of a passenger carrying an unusually large sum, and his claims regarding the source and legitimacy, have to be verified, some delay a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... till be used for an illegal purpose,-say to pay for a crime or to fund an act of terrorism. It may also be used for a routine illegal function-to make part payment of sale consideration for a property in cash, so that the full price is not reflected in the sale deed, resulting in evasion of stamp duty and registration charges and evasion of payment of capital gains and creation of black money. The carrying of such a huge sum, itself gives rise to a legitimate suspicion. The intelligence officers are, therefore, entitled to satisfy themselves, not only that the money is from a legitimate source, but also satisfy themselves that such a large amount is being carried for a legitimate purpose. That is necessary in the interest of preventing crimes and offences. Therefore, even if the carrier is not guilty of any offence in carrying the money, the verification or seizure may be warranted to ensure that the money is not intended for commission of a crime or offence. 12. It is not only the security/intelligence personnel who require to be sensitised, but also the air travelling public some of whom throw tantrums and create scenes at airports, even for minimum delays and checking procedur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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