1925 (8) TMI 2

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..... ces of cocaine should be purchased at ₹ 65 per ounce by the informer. He had completed the arrangement for its purchase and was trying to arrange for the price when, on the 19th April he received further information that one of his informers had divulged that information to the smugglers and that they were leaving the shop on the Latouche Road which was in their occupation. He, therefore hurried to the house and the shop occupied by the accused without waiting to obtain a search warrant from the Collector under Section 53 of the Excise Act. The shop was found closed. It was opened but nothing excisable was found in it The Excise Inspector and the constable who accompanied him then went to the house of the accused accompanied by two se .....

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..... . The learned Sessions Judge had rightly pointed out that even if the Excise Inspector had no opportunity of obtaining a warrant from the Collector and thought that any delay would afford the offender an opportunity of escape or of concealing evidence of the offence, it was his duty before proceeding to make the search to record the grounds for his belief that an offence of the kind mentioned was being or likely to be committed and that an immediate search was necessary. The Excise Inspector does not appear to have recorded any proceeding showing the grounds of such belief; and that was a serious irregularity which but for the clear evidence adduced in this case and accepted by the Courts below might have seriously affected the situation. T .....

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..... is story may in many cases depend on the support it might receive from the persons accompanying him in the search. But if for any reason the officer making the search is unable to get two or more respectable inhabitants of the locality and a search is effected in the presence of one or more men available at the time, leading to the discovery of an excisable article, the accused who is found in possession of that article can all the same be convicted, if the Court is satisfied from the evidence that an offence has been committed. In a case where a search had been carried out in disregard of the provisions of Sections 25 and 30 of the Arms Act it was held that though the search was illegal, the person found in possession of the arms could sti .....

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