TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1986 (7) TMI 274
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....ian currency of Rs. 1 lakh under Sec. 121 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') and rejecting the appellant's claim thereto under law. 2.  The Central Excise Officers attached to the Preventive Unit, Madurai, on the basis of prior information, visited the premises of the appellants at Door No. 4-A, Mettukammala 4th Lane, South Avanimoola Street, Madurai where the appellants in partnership are having a silver refinery. The appellant, Panduranga Bagwan Patel, was present at the time when the authorities found six gold bars in rectangular shape and another gold triangular bit, totally weighing 2918.250 gms. Apart from it, on search the authorities also found a gunny bag in the midst of leco coal bags which on ....
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....resented the sale proceeds of contraband goods. The learned counsel also urged that since the appellants did not have a copy of their statements, they could not immediately make a claim to the currency under seizure and so the belated claim of the appellants to the currency under seizure cannot be construed to be a circumstance against the appellants. The learned counsel also contended that inasmuch as the authorities had no reason to believe that the currency in question represented the sale proceeds of contraband goods, the seizure of the same is against law and consequently the confiscation of the same under the impugned order is bad in law. It was also contended that the statements attributed to the appellants and dated 28-6-1983 were n....
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....etition to the authorities on 9-7-1983 wherein also admittedly no claim for the currency was made at all. The learned D.R. further argued that the seizure was only on a reasonable belief particularly because it was on the basis of proper information, as made clear under the impugned order. The learned D.R. also drew our attention to the various circumstances such as, concealment of the huge quantity of currency under seizure in a gunny bag in the midst of leco coal bags, recovery of substantial quantity of gold from the appellants' premises, which is a silver refinery not entitled to keep any gold, statement of one Baskaran to the effect that the gold under seizure was illicit gold, to contend that there were enough circumstances to induce ....
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....no objection in its being confiscated to Government." We have gone through the statements of the appellants and we are satisfied that the statements are true and voluntary. We would like to observe in this context that notwithstanding the fact that seizure of Rs. 1 lakh was made by the authorities, no whisper of a claim as it were, was ever made by any of the claimants at any time till after the appellants chose to give a reply to the show cause notice on 27-1-1984. This conduct of total inaction on the part of the appellants would considerably militate against the present plea of the appellants claiming a right to the currency under seizure. Though the appellants at the time when they were produced for remand complained of ill-treatment....
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....ind any claim being made by the appellants specifically with reference to the currency even in this communication of the appellants. The learned counsel fairly conceded that no detailed petition as referred to in the appellants' letter dated 9-7-1983 and referred to supra was ever sent to any authority by the appellants in view of the Superintendent's letter dated 15-7-1983. We have gone through the remand report of the Judicial Magistrate dated 29-6-1983 and we have also gone through the complaint submitted by the wife of the appellant Vasanth Ramachandra Rassal dated 2-7-1983. This complaint of appellant Rassal's wife though is very comprehensive and a detailed one, there is not of a slightest whisper of claim about the appellants' right ....
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....o the authorities referred to above. Since the appellants have clearly stated at the earliest opportunity that they are in no way concerned with the currency at all, we are of the view that the appellants having admitted they have no title of any kind to the currency cannot go back on it and change their stand at a later point of time and belatedly make a claim in reply to the show cause notice. We, therefore, hold that the evidence on record clearly establishes that the appellants are not entitled to make any claim in respect of the currency under seizure; nor the appellants were able to satisfy us on evidence about their rights or title to the same under law. In this view of the matter we find that the appellants have no legal title to th....