9911796707
TMI Blog2002 (8) TMI 584X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... activities which are prohibited by law. 2. The fact of the matter is undisputed. Mr. Sawarmal Agarwalla, brother of the writ petitioner herein was detained under the said Act for a period of about 20 months during 1995-97. The writ petitioner herein was treated as an affected person under section 2(2)( c ). Notice under section 6(1) was issued on 15-10-1980 thereby calling upon the writ petitioner herein as to why the properties specified therein should not be declared to be illegally acquired properties and forfeited to the Central Government. The new incumbents of the Offices of the competent authority also issued notices for forfeiture of the said properties on 8-11-1985 and 12-10-1987. Yet again, another notice was issued with ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... irection quashing the proceedings and the notices and orders issued by authorities under the SAFEMA and to direct the respondent No. 3 to drop further proceedings against the petitioner; ( f )issue an appropriate Writ or Order/Direction treating the appellate proceedings before the respondent Nos. 2 ( viz. Appellate Tribunal for Forfeited Property, New Delhi) as infructuous; and ( g )pass such further and other orders as the nature and circumstances of the case may require." 3. Shri Harjinder Singh, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, at the outset very fairly stated that in view of the decision of the Apex Court in Attorney General of India v. Amratlal Prajivandas AIR 1994 SC 2179, the writ petition has to be k ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (2) of section 9, of the said Act; or ( iii )such order of detention, being an order to which the provisions of section 12A of the said Act apply, has not been revoked before the expiry of the time for, or on the basis of, the first review under sub-section (3) of that section, or on the basis of the report of the Advisory Board under section 8, read with sub-section (6) of section 12A of that Act; or ( iv )such order of detention has not been set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction;" Clause ( c ) of section 3 thereof defines illegally acquired property in the following terms : "( c ) illegally acquired property , in relation to any person to whom this Act applies, means ( i )any property acquired by such person, whe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or, where there are two or more such previous holders, the last of such previous holders is or was a transferee in good faith for adequate consideration; (B)any property acquired by such person, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, for a consideration, or by any means, wholly or partly traceable to any property falling under item (A), or the income or earnings therefrom;". Sub-section (1) of section 4 prohibits holding of illegally acquired property and sub-section (2) thereof empowers the Central Government to forfeit such property acquired in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 5 of the said Act. Section 6 of the said Act provides for issuance of notice for forfeiture. Section 8 of the s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ehalf of the petitioner therein before the Supreme Court, was that the relative or associate of a detenu or a convicted person may acquire property of his own even by illegal means, but only because he happens to be the affected person within the meaning of the said Act, his property cannot be forfeited without establishing a nexus between the earnings from the illegal activity and acquisition of the property. In that case, the Apex Court observed : "The language of section 2(2) is indicative of the ambit of the Act. Clauses ( c ) and ( d ) in section 2(2) and the Explanations ( 2 ) and ( 3 ) occurring therein shall have to be construed and understood in the light of the overall scheme and purpose of the enactment. The idea is to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the detenu /convict or that they in fact did not or do not belong to such detenu /convict. The Parliament never intended to say that the properties of all the relatives and associates, may be illegally acquired, will be forfeited just because they happen to be the relatives or associates of the convict/ detenu . There ought to be the connecting link between those properties and the convict/detenu, the burden of disproving, which, as mentioned above, is upon the relative/associate. In this view of the matter, the apprehension in this behalf must be held to be based upon a mistaken premise. The bringing in of the relatives and associates or of the persons mentioned in clause ( e ) of section 2(2) is thus either discriminatory nor incompet ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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