https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=185701 Summons issued under Section 108 of the Customs Act by an officer lacking contemporaneous empowerment could not found prosecution under Sections 174 and 175 IPC for non-compliance. The later retrospective amendment could regularise procedural competence, but it could not retrospectively create penal liability where no offence existed when the alleged omission occurred. Article 20 bars ex post facto criminal liability, and the default was not a continuing offence because the summons were not akin to a warrant. As the validity of the summons was a foundational requirement for invoking the penal provisions, the criminal complaint and summoning order were quashed. en-us Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0530 Sat, 11 Feb 2017 10:51:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=185701 Summons issued under Section 108 of the Customs Act by an officer lacking contemporaneous empowerment could not found prosecution under Sections 174 and 175 IPC for non-compliance. The later retrospective amendment could regularise procedural competence, but it could not retrospectively create penal liability where no offence existed when the alleged omission occurred. Article 20 bars ex post facto criminal liability, and the default was not a continuing offence because the summons were not akin to a warrant. As the validity of the summons was a foundational requirement for invoking the penal provisions, the criminal complaint and summoning order were quashed. Case-Laws Customs Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=185701