2015 (7) TMI 1093 - HC - Customs

Court allows aggregation of gold quantities for bail determination, precedent-based decision.

Mohammad Nazim Versus Union of India

Mohammad Nazim Versus Union of India - 2016 (334) E.L.T. 47 (Raj.) Issues: Bail application based on clubbing of past alleged incidences to determine bailable or non-bailable offence.In this judgment by the Rajasthan High Court, the main issue revolves around a bail application where the accused-applicant argues that the offence, if considered separately, is bailable. However, the prosecution has combined multiple past alleged incidences, even though no gold was recovered from the petitioners previously. The counsel for the accused contends that due to this clubbing of past incidents, the petitioners are entitled to bail.The respondent's counsel opposes the bail application, citing previous judgments. One of the cases referred to is Najibullah & Anr. v. Union of India, where it was established that the clubbing of past incidences of bringing gold is allowed to determine the total weight and value. Additionally, the judgment in Smt. Amal Mubarak Salim Al Reiyami v. Union of India & Ors. further supports this stance. It was held that even the recovery of gold from co-accused and adding it to calculate the total quantity is valid. Based on these precedents, the respondent argues that the petitioners are not entitled to bail.Upon considering the arguments presented by both parties, the court notes that the issue raised by the counsel for the accused-applicant has already been addressed by a co-ordinate Bench in a previous case. It was established that the clubbing of the total quantity of gold is permissible to determine whether the offence is bailable or non-bailable. If the total value, post clubbing, exceeds Rs. 1 crore, the offence ceases to be bailable. Consequently, the court concludes that the bail application cannot be accepted and is therefore dismissed.