The Patiala House Court, New Delhi, has held that an application under Section 110 (1B) of the Customs Act not maintainable before the Metropolitan Magistrate since the provision authorizes Executive Magistrate to entertain such applications.
The Court was dismissing an Application of DRI where the department wanted to obtain samples of seized foreign currencies alleged to be smuggled. The department has alleged that foreign currency equivalent to INR 1,42,50,257/- and Indian currency equivalent to Rs. 5,32,500/- has been recovered on 29.08.2019.
The Court presided by Sh. Anshul Singhal cited a catena of decisions and observed that the decision interpreting the word “Magistrate” to be Judicial/Metropolitan Magistrate seemed flawed and it was categorically held that it is an Executive function.
“Thereby, giving strength to the decision of this Court about the application not being maintainable before this Court. This Court also feels the need to discuss another decision of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi pronounced recently in Air Customs v. MosafierAlizahi&Ors., Crl. MC 1490/2020 wherein the Hon’ble High Court held that the proceedings under Section 52A of NDPS Act were to be carried out by the Metropolitan Magistrate. The order emphasized on 52A (4) of the NDPS Act however, there is no provision akin to Section 52A (4) in the Customs Act. Hence, the decision cannot be held to be a precedent especially in light of the authoritative pronouncements discussed above with emphasis onthe decision in SLA (Crl.) no. 10280/2015. Moreover, this decision does not discuss the above-mentioned authoritative orders which are pertinent to the question under scanner,” the Court said.
Accused/Respondent represented by Advocate R P Singh while Customs was represented by Sr. PP Satish Agarwala
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