Magistrate's power to refuse bail and remand custody applies where customs arrest provisions lack a separate bail code.

Where the Customs Act authorises arrest and production before a Magistrate but does not provide its own bail procedure, the general bail and custody provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure apply by virtue of Section 4(2). The Magistrate, dealing with a person produced on a non-bailable customs offence under Section 104, may therefore refuse bail under Section 437 and commit the person to custody; a contrary view would render the statutory requirement of production before the Magistrate ineffective. The challenge to the remand and custody consequently failed.

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Issues: Whether a Magistrate has power, when a person suspected of a non-bailable offence under the Customs Act, 1962 is produced before him by a Customs Officer under Section 104, to refuse bail and remand the person to custody under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Analysis: Section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962 authorises arrest and production before a Magistrate, but contains no complete code for bail and custody. By virtue of Section 4(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the general procedural provisions of the Code apply to offences under special laws unless the special law provides otherwise. Section 437 of the Code governs non-bailable offences and, read harmoniously with its sub-sections, necessarily includes the power to continue custody when bail is refused. A construction denying such power would make the statutory requirement of production before a Magistrate futile and would create an untenable stage of compulsory release.

Conclusion: The Magistrate does have power to refuse bail and remand the arrested person to custody.

Final Conclusion: The question was answered in the affirmative, and the challenge to the remand and custody of the petitioners failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special enactment authorises arrest and production before a Magistrate but does not provide its own bail procedure, the bail and custody provisions of the Code apply, and the power to refuse bail under Section 437 includes the implied power to commit the person to custody.

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