9911796707
TMI Blog1970 (2) TMI 55X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Sethia, or Eastern Supply Agency, Calcutta, as the case may be, in January 1965 were intercepted and seized at Madras by prior officers of the Customs Department, purporting to so act on a reasonable belief that they were contraband, and liable to action under station 110 of the Customs Act, 1962. After protracted correspondence and delay the respondent intimated in April 1965 that as the concerned cases were being transferred to the Collector of Central Excise, West Bengal, Calcutta, further correspondence in respect of them might be addressed to the Superintendent of Customs and Central Excise, Divisional Preventing Unit, Calcutta. The appellants then filed petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution, for direction for return of good ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n exercise the power of confiscation only within the area for which he is appointed. Even as such, seizure and arrest under Chapter XIII of the Act can be resorted to by proper officers within their jurisdiction. It may be granted, it was so held in Sewpujanrai I. Ltd. v. Collector of Customs, 1983 (13) E.L.T. 1305 (S.C.) = A.I.R. 1958 Supreme Court 845 that confiscation of goods under the Customs Act is a proceeding in rem, and a penalty enforced against the goods, the confiscation operating directly upon the status of the property confiscated by transfer of its ownership. But this does not, in our opinion, conclude that jurisdiction for adjudication depends necessarily on situs of the goods. Section 3 of the Customs Act, 1962, mentions th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on 112 authorises levy of penalty for improper importation of goods. Section 122 provides for confiscation, and levy of penalty and the officers who would have the pecuniary jurisdiction to do so. Section 124 says that no order of confiscation or imposition of penalty shall be made without notice and opportunity of making representation against it. Under section 126 when any goods are confiscated under the Act, such goods shall vest in the Central Government, and the Officer adjudicating confiscation shall take possession of the confiscated goods. In the notification under section 4, the Government while appointing the Collector of Customs, Calcutta, and Collector of Customs, Madras, defined the territorial jurisdiction of each of them, the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er of seizure, however, it is not a requisite that the importation of the offending goods itself must have been within his jurisdiction. Equally we do not think that if the goods have been improperly imported into a particular area within the jurisdiction of a Collector, such goods should continue to have the situs within that area as a condition to his jurisdiction to adjudicate and investigate, or impose a penalty. Section 126 seems to justify the view that to adjudicate confiscation, the officer doing it need not necessarily have seized of the confiscated goods. He can well after adjudicating confiscation take possession of the goods confiscated. Jurisdiction to adjudicate would be with the Collector within whose jurisdiction there has b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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