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TMI Blog2002 (11) TMI 681X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed:- 22-11-2002 - S. RAJENDRA BABU AND P. VENKATARAMA REDDI, JJ. K.N. Rawal, S. Balakrishnan, K.K. Mani, Ms. Monika Tripathy, Rajeev Sharma, B.K. Prasad, S. Prasad and Ms. Revathy Raghavan for the Appearing Parties . JUDGMENT S. Rajendra Babu, J. T. Mohamed Nazeer, husband of the petitioner herein, (hereinafter referred to as the detenu ) was detained under section 3(1)( i ) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (Central Act 52 of 1974) (for short the Act ) by an order made on 7-5-2002. He is at present confined in Central Prison, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The gist of the allegations made against the detenu is that the Customs Authorities seized 200 cellphones, 4 cordless phones (base and handset), 4 cordless phones and 350 earphones totally valued at Rs. 13,19,500 from the baggages of the detenu after he came from Singapore and landed at Chennai Anna International Airport along with his baggages on 20-3-2002; that in the declaration filed by the detenu goods valued at Rs. 80,000 had been disclosed, while he was bringing goods valued at Rs. 13,19,500 into India without payment of appropriate customs duty by mis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such cases there is bound to be delay in the receipt of the papers by the President s Secretariat and forwarding the same to the concerned Ministry. Therefore, we called for further affidavits from the Central Government in this regard. It is stated in the affidavit filed by the Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, as under : "As per the record of the President s Secretariat a letter dated 22-5-2002 in a regional language was received on 29-5-2002. There was no indication of the words "COFEPOSA" in the petition. As per the existing practice various letters received in regional languages are sent for translation for providing the gist of the letter. Typically, the President s Secretariat receives approximately 5000 petitions in a month out of which approximately 500 petitions are received in various regional languages. Since a very large number of petitions are received in various regional languages, in the interest of expeditious disposal, the translation work is also got done through a panel of translators maintained by the Ministry of HRD as well as through private individuals on payment basis. Hence, the process takes someti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... round urged by the learned counsel for the detenu is that he had studied only up to 5th class and he does not know English language at all and the document annexed to detention order was not translated in Tamil. In this context the learned counsel for detenu relied upon the decision of this Court in M. Ahamedkutty v. Union of India [1990] 2 SCC 1, that even if the document was within the knowledge of the detenu, the same had to be served upon him. He further relied upon the decision of this Court in Powanammal v. State of T.N. [1999] 2 SCC 413, to the effect that the serving of document in English would not be an effective compliance with the provisions of Article 22 of the Constitution and the documents had to be translated. He submitted that that was a document (document at page No. 13) which pertains to the declaration filed by him. It is the stand of the respondents that it was a customs declaration card filled up by the detenu himself and, therefore, he was aware of the contents of the said declaration and he had also stated in the course of his statement before the authorities that he had filled up such a card. It is not the case of the detenu that the said document w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re by flight IC 556 at Chennai Anna International Airport; that the detenu in his customs declaration submitted to the Customs Authorities before he was intercepted declared that he had brought two checked in baggages and one hand baggage; that at the time of interception, he was found in possession of the said two checked in baggages, one baggage with a baggage tag in his name and the other without a baggage tag and one hand baggage; that even the said one baggage tag did indicate as 2/32 which means that the detenu had booked two checked in baggages weighing 32 kgs.; that the said two checked in baggages were examined by the Customs Officer in the presence of independent witnesses and in the presence of the detenu himself and the seizure of the goods effected therefrom. Particularly when in the declaration filed by the detenu he himself had shown that he had brought two checked in baggages and the baggage tag did indicate that there are two items, it baffles anyone s imagination as to how the detenu can now contend that there was absolutely no material before the concerned authorities to prove the ownership of the baggages in the absence of baggage tag or claim tag. Further, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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