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TMI Blog1970 (11) TMI 98X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ut 10-30 P.M., P.W. 1, the Commercial Tax Officer, Ongole, accompanied by P.W. 2, the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, P.W. 3, the Assistant Commercial Tax Officer, P.W. 4, the Special Assistant Commercial Tax Officer, P.W. 5, the Commercial Tax Inspector, P.W. 6, their clerk, P.Ws. 7 and 8, peons, left the Commercial Tax Office at Ongole in the departmental jeep APG 4782 driven by P.W. 9 to check lorries carrying goods on Ongole-Kurnool road. After checking a lorry at Pernimitta, they had come to Santhanuthalapad at 10-30 P.M. and on seeing an empty lorry APK 1831 coming, they stopped it and learnt from him that he had unloaded 37 bags of groundnut kernel in Jayalakshmi Bharat Oil Mill at Santhanuthalapad having brought it from Kandulur. P.W. 1 then took the original copy of the trip sheet in the lorry and all of them proceeded in the jeep to the mill to verify the stocks. The mill was then working with lights on and the gate was closed. They shouted from outside the gate to open it, but no one opened it. Thereupon P.W. 1 asked P.W. 3 to go inside and verify the bags of groundnut kernel and P.Ws. 1, 2 and 7 went to an adjacent mill to find out whether it was working. Finding that it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he village munsif and not finding him there and as he was returning he met him in the bazaar and when he told him of what had happened he was evasive and did not come. Then P.W. 1 drafted the report, exhibit P-1, at the house of P.W. 10 and sent it to the police station. P.W. 16, the Inspector of Police Station, received the report and sent it to Chimakurthi Police Station for registration and then went to Santhanuthalapad at about 9 A.M. the following day, i.e., 21st August, 1967, and there in the house of P.W. 10 found P.W. 1 and others and also the jeep in front with the wind-screen glass completely broken. Then he seized the broken glass pieces as well as the clothes worn by P.W. 1. The injured were sent to the Government hospital at Ongole and P.W. 15, the doctor who examined them, found 14 injuries on P.W.1, two on P.W. 2 and one each on P.Ws. 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 and had issued the wound certificates exhibits P-5 to P-12. The Circle Inspector found the accused absconding. After the completion of investigation, he filed the charge-sheet on 6th November, 1967. The accused in their statements denied any knowledge of the offence and stated that the mill was closed that night and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e determined in this case is whether the action of P.W. 1 and his staff P.Ws. 2 to 8 in entering the Jayalakshmi Bharat Oil Mill at Santhanuthalapad was unauthorised and whether the accused in assaulting and causing injuries to P.Ws. 1, 7 and others had acted in private defence. According to P.Ws. 1 to 9, who were all members of the staff of the commercial tax department, they had got into the jeep APG 4782 driven by P.W. 9 and started to check the lorries on the road carrying goods on Ongole-Kurnool road and they had reached Santhanuthalapad at about 11-30 P.M. and there on seeing an empty lorry coming, they questioned the driver and learnt from him that he had unloaded 37 bags of groundnut kernel in the Jayalakshmi Bharat Oil Mill and P.W. 1 even took the trip sheet and then all of them proceeded to the mill. They found it working with lights on and as the main gate was not opened, they entered the mill through the wicket gate and there P.W. 1 asked A-5 to show the entries in the register relating to the 37 bags of groundnut kernel unloaded and that A-5 was not willing and later followed the disturbance and the assault on P.W. 7 first and then on P.W. 1 and others. P.W. 1, who wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... asons to be recorded in writing seize such accounts, registers or other documents of the dealer as he may consider necessary, and shall give the dealer a receipt for the same. The accounts, registers and documents so seized shall be retained by such officer only for so long as may be necessary for their examination and for any enquiry or proceedings under this Act: Provided that such accounts, registers and documents shall not be retained for more than thirty days at a time except with the permission of the next higher authority. (4) For the purposes of sub-section (2) or sub-section (3), any such officer shall have power to enter and search at any time during business hours prescribed under the relevant law for the time being in force, or where no such hours are prescribed, at all reasonable times, any office, shop, godown, vessel, vehicle or any other place of business or any building or place where such officer has reason to believe that the dealer keeps or is, for the time being, keeping any goods, accounts, registers or other documents of his business: Provided that no residential accommodation (not being a shop-cumresidence) shall be entered into and searched by such offi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , P.W. 1 and others, had gone to the mill premises. What they had done was only to go to the verandah of the mill, count the bags that were found stacked there, asked A-5 to produce the register to find whether the receipt of these bags had been entered. Nothing more was done by them and when they found that the atmosphere was hostile to them and they were about to leave, they were attacked. Under these circumstances, even the other cases cited will not be applicable to the facts of this case. In Bhupalem Venkata Subbaiah, In re[1960] 11 S.T.C. 850., what the officers of the commercial tax department did was to seize the books from the person, who was hastily bundling them up on their arrival and was going towards his house, when they were attacked; it was held that section 28(3) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act confined the power of seizure of an officer to accounts, registers or other documents referred to therein and it was for the prosecution to prove that the books in question were books, the officer was entitled to seize under section 28(3), and as long as the prosecution did not prove that they were account books, the recovery of the books by force after pushing t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d of night, it should also be construed a reasonable time for making the inspection or calling for the registers by the officers of the commercial tax department. While the lower appellate court had considered the provisions of section 97 of the Indian Penal Code, it had ignored the provision of section 99, Indian Penal Code, under which there is no right of private defence against an act which does not reasonably cause the apprehension of death or of grievous hurt, if done, or attempted to be done by a public servant acting in good faith under colour of his office, though that act may be not directly justifiable in law. There is no dispute in this case that P.W. 1 and his staff were acting under the colour of their office, as they all had together started in a jeep for purposes of surprise checks and inspection. It is obviously part of their duty to make the surprise visits also to detect evasions. It cannot be said that they were not acting in good faith as the consistent evidence is that they had learnt from the lorry driver that 37 bags of groundnut kernel had been unloaded in the Jayalakshmi Bharat Oil Mill and they had gone there to see whether the entry regarding these had b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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