https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391154 Failure to apprise an of the mandatory right under Section 102 of the Customs Act, 1962 to be taken before the nearest gazetted officer of customs or a magistrate rendered the personal search illegal. The Bombay HC treated the safeguard as mandatory and comparable in protective purpose to the NDPS framework, and found no reliable record that the accused had been informed of that right. It also noted weaknesses in the panch witness evidence and panchnama, and that the related adjudication had returned the alleged sale proceeds for lack of proof of smuggled-gold proceeds. Applying the double presumption of innocence in an appeal against acquittal, the Court upheld the acquittal and the prosecution appeal failed. en-us Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 21 Jan 2020 08:16:35 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391154 Failure to apprise an of the mandatory right under Section 102 of the Customs Act, 1962 to be taken before the nearest gazetted officer of customs or a magistrate rendered the personal search illegal. The Bombay HC treated the safeguard as mandatory and comparable in protective purpose to the NDPS framework, and found no reliable record that the accused had been informed of that right. It also noted weaknesses in the panch witness evidence and panchnama, and that the related adjudication had returned the alleged sale proceeds for lack of proof of smuggled-gold proceeds. Applying the double presumption of innocence in an appeal against acquittal, the Court upheld the acquittal and the prosecution appeal failed. Case-Laws Customs Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391154