EAST INDIA COMMERCIAL CO LIMITED CALCUTTA Vs. COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS CALCUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following Judgment were delivered.

(2.) THE appellants had brought into India from the U.S.A. a large quantity of electrical instruments under a licence. THE respondent, the Collector of Customs, Calcutta, started proceedings for confiscation of these goods tinder s.167(8) of the Sea Customs Act, 1878. THE appellants contend that the proceedings are entirely without jurisdiction as the Collector can confiscate only when there is an import in contravention of an order prohibiting or restricting it and in the present case the Collector was proceeding to confiscate on the ground that a condition of the licence under which the goods had been imported had been disobeyed. THE appellants, therefore, ask for a writ of prohibition directing the Collector to stop the proceedings. THE question is, has the Collector jurisdiction to adjudicate whether the goods are liable to be confiscated? THE decision of that question, however, depends on certain statutory provisions and the fact of the case to which, therefore, I shall immediately turn.

(3.) THE goods duly arrived in India and were cleared out of the customs sometime about the end of February, 1949. Soon thereafter, the authorities concerned are said to have got information that the goods were being sold in the market in breach of the condition of the licence. THEreupon the police took steps and after obtaining a search warrant from a Magistrate in Calcutta on 12/08/1949, seized a large stock of the goods from the godown of the appellants.