Bailability under special fiscal statutes: non-cognizable excise and customs offences remain bailable under their own procedural scheme.

The Supreme Court held that offences under the Central Excise Act, 1944 and the Customs Act, 1962 are bailable even though they are declared non-cognizable. The special statutory scheme permits arrest by departmental officers and subsequent forwarding of the arrested person to the police station or Magistrate, where bail may be granted under the procedure made applicable by those Acts. The Code of Criminal Procedure's general classification of bailable offences does not override this special arrangement. As the two enactments are in pari materia on this point, the same construction applies to both.

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Issues: Whether offences under the Central Excise Act, 1944 and the Customs Act, 1962, though declared non-cognizable, are bailable.

Analysis: Section 9A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, and Section 104(4) of the Customs Act, 1962, declare the relevant offences to be non-cognizable notwithstanding the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The scheme of the two enactments also provides for arrest by the departmental officer and thereafter forwarding of the arrested person to the police station or Magistrate, where the officer in charge is empowered to admit the person to bail under the procedural provisions made applicable by the special Acts. The Code's definition of a bailable offence and the classification in the First Schedule do not control these special statutory arrangements to exclude bail; rather, the special provisions in the Central Excise Act and the Customs Act show that the legislature contemplated release on bail in such cases. The two enactments are in pari materia on this issue and the same construction applies to both.

Conclusion: Offences under both the Central Excise Act, 1944 and the Customs Act, 1962 are bailable, notwithstanding that they are non-cognizable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special fiscal statute expressly makes offences non-cognizable but its procedural scheme provides for bail on arrest, the offences are to be treated as bailable by force of that special statute.

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