2012 (10) TMI 273

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....e respondents at its factory premises situated at 14-B, Sector F, Sanwer Road, Indore and also seizure of the documents effected during the course of the said search. 2. Briefly stated the petitioner is engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of cigarettes, which is a Tobacco product. According to the petitioner, the authorisation for conducting the search has been ordered by the authorising officer without recording satisfaction of the condition precedent for invoking powers under Section 105(1) of the Customs Act. The search of its premises has been conducted by the respondents without there being any "reason to believe" for issuance of authorisation for search that any goods liable for confiscation or any documents or thi....

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....garettes of various brands manufactured by the petitioner without any duty paying documents were also found during the searches at Coimbatore etc. and were placed under seizure. In view of seizures of non-duty paid cigarette manufactured by the petitioner, a decision was taken to search the petitioner's premises immediately to resume incriminating records. 6. On going through the aforesaid satisfaction recorded in the said order and the record produced before us, we find that there was sufficient reason to believe about the existence of the requirement necessary for issuance of authorization for search under Section 105(1) of the Customs Act. 7. The petitioner's reliance on the order passed by this Court in the case of Akash....

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....se of Suman Singhai v. Director of Income Tax (Investigation) reported as [2011] 17 Income Tax Judgments 22 (MP) a Division Bench of this Court consisting of Hon'ble the Chief Justice Shri S.R. Alam and Hon'ble Shri Justice Alok Aradhe, the scope and ambit of powers under Section 132A of the IT Act has been clarified in the following passage :- "10. At this stage we deem it appropriate to deal with the scope and ambit of powers under Section 132A of the Income Tax Act with regard to search and seizure. In Seth Brothers (supra), the Supreme Court while dealing with the provisions of Section 132 of the Income Tax Act relating to search and seizure which is pari materia to Section 132A of the Income Tax Act has held that Section does n....

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....ppellate or revisional court and as such has no justification to examine meticulously the information in order to decide for itself as to whether action under Section 132A was called for or not. Suffice it to say that in exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction this court can examine whether the act or issuance of an authorisation under Section 132A is arbitrary or mala fide or whether the subjective satisfaction which is recorded is such that it indicates lack of application of mind of the appropriate authority. According to me the reason to believe must be based on definable material or materials and if the information or the reason to believe has no nexus with the belief or there is no definable material or tangible information for formati....