TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2005 (8) TMI 381
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....on dated 23rd July, 2004 made under the provision of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smug-gling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the COFEPOSA Act"). As per the impugned detention order the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Chennai received an intelligence on 16-7-2004 to the effect that detenue was arriving at Anna International Airport, Chennai from Colombo by Sri Lankan Airlines Flight UL-123 bringing electronic goods and other items in trade quantity in order to smuggle the same without payment of appropriate customs duty. In pursuance of the intelligence received, the appellant was intercepted by the customs authorities on his arrival on 16-7-2004. A personal search was conduc....
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.... been supplied with the copies of the passports, entries of which have been relied upon by the detaining authority for passing the detention order. The detention order, therefore, suffers with the non-compliance of the constitutional protection and, thus liable to be quashed. 5. In the grounds of detention it is said that on 17-7-2004 the detenue gave a statement in his own hand-writing in Tamil before the Senor Intelligence Officer, D.R.I., Chennai, stating, inter alia, that he is the resident of Pudur Village in Sivagangai District. He arrived at Chennai on 16-7-2004 by Sri Lankan Airlines Flight UL-123; that he had obtained passport bearing No. B-5315177 at Trichi. From the year 2002, he has been going abroad to procure electronic and....
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.... the Customs Act, 1962 read with section 11(1) of the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992; that the burden of proving the licit nature of the watches in trade quantity seized from the baggage lies on him; that he has also admitted that he has been making foreign travels for bringing foreign goods for sale in India and that he had made about 23 foreign trips under his old passport and 4 trips to Hong Kong via Colombo under the current passport; that the said passports contain entries of foreign visits made by him. The bone of contention of the counsel is based on last two lines of this ground, that having utilized the passport entries for issuing a detention order, the detenue should have been served with the copies of those d....
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.... authority to supply copies of those documents in the language known to the detenue; having said, the Court put a rider; but it is not that non-supply of each and every document provide a ground for setting aside the detention order. It is for the detenue to establish that the non-supply of copies of the documents has impaired the detenue's right to make an effective and purposeful representation. The demand made by the detenue of the document merely on the ground that there is a reference in the grounds of detention, cannot vitiate the otherwise legal detention order. No hard and fast rule can be laid down in this behalf. What is essential is that the detenue must show that the failure to supply the documents had impaired his right, howeve....