TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2006 (9) TMI 77
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....lligence, and in the said process, the officers have seized certain documents, files, hard discs, pen-drives containing data etc., and took the samples of stainless steel sheets as recorded in the mahazars drawn on 14-7-2005, 20-1-2006 and 23-1-12006. The petitioner is engaged in manufacturing of household appliances like pressure cooker, LPG stove, non- stick kitchenware and trading in other household appliances. On the basis of in formation about the diversion of duty free goods by the petitioner, the petitioner's premises were searched. 4. By filing this writ petition, the petitioner, as could be seen from the aforesaid prayer, has prayed for return of the goods, records and documents which are seized from its business premises on the ground that the seized goods shall have to be returned back to the person from whom the goods are seized immediately after the lapse of six months in the absence of initiation of any proceedings under Section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' for short) by issuance of show cause notice. The petitioner relies upon the provisions of Section 110(1) & (2) of the Act for the said purpose. Admittedly, in the present ca....
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....such goods containing such details relating to their description, quality, quantity, mark, numbers, country of origin and other particulars as the proper officer may consider relevant to the identity of the goods in any proceedings under this Act and shall make an application to a Magistrate for the purpose of - (a) certifying the correctness of the inventory so prepared; or (b) taking, in the presence of the Magistrate, photographs of such goods, and certifying such photographs as true; or (c) allowing to draw representative samples of such goods, in the presence of the Magistrate, and certifying the correctness of any list of samples so drawn. (1C) Where an application is made under sub-section (1B), the Magistrate shall, as soon as may be, allow the application. (2) Where any goods are seized under sub-section (1) and no notice in respect thereof is given under clause (a) of Section 124 within six months of the seizure of the goods, the goods shall be returned to the person from whose possession they were seized: Provided that the aforesaid period of six months may, on sufficient cause being shown, be extended by the Commissioner of Customs for a period not exc....
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....c) baggage; (d) currency and negotiable instruments; and (e) any other kind of movable property;" 9. Shri Kiran Javali, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner by relying upon sub-clause (e) of Clause 22 of Section 2 of the Act contends that the files, documents, Floppies, Hard Disc, and Pen-drive etc., come within the definition of "goods", inasmuch as, they are the movable properties and that therefore, they should be returned back to the petitioner as they cannot be retained beyond six months as per the mandatory provisions of Section 110(2) of the Act. 10. As aforesaid, the first search and seizure was made on 14-7-2005. The mahazar drawn on that day is produced at Annexure-'A' to the writ petition. The said mahazar discloses that, the respondents-Authorities have seized 69 files, containing the documents which are required for further investigation under the Act. At the same time, the officers of the department have drawn three representative samples from the imported raw materials, as well as, from the locally procured materials. Except the said files, no goods were seized or taken into possession. However, three representative samples drawn as aforesaid were....
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....ts fold for the purpose of Section 105 r / w. Section 110 of the Act. The words "goods, documents or things" are used disjunctively in Sections 105 and 110 of the Act. If the documents and things are also to be included within the definition of "goods" as stated in Section 2(22)(e), then, there was no need for the Legislature to use the words "goods, documents or things" separately in Section 105 and Section 110 of the Act. All the documents and things are naturally tangible and movable. As the intention of the Legislature is to separate 'documents and things' from the 'goods' for the purpose of Sections 105 and 110 of the Act, all the three aforesaid words are separately used in the said sections. Thus, as aforesaid, the question relating to seizure of the goods is dealt with under Section 110(1) & (2) of the Act and whereas, the seizure of the documents and things are dealt with under sub sections (3) & (4) of Section 110 of the Act. 12. The Legislature in its wisdom has only laid down condition and time as to when the goods seized ought to be released, but has not laid down any condition for return of the documents or things seized. The power to seize goods is coupled with th....
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....to be regarded as documents or electronic records. It would be necessary to know the meaning of electronic record and data etc., by importing the definitions of the same as stated in Information Technology Act. The word "electronic record" is defined under Section 2(1)(t) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as under: "Section 2(1)(t) : "electronic record" means data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or micro film or computer generated micro fiche." The word "data" is defined under Section 2(1)(o) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as under: "Section 2(1)(o) : "data" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions which are being prepared or have been prepared in a formalized manner, and is intended to be processed, is being processed or has been processed in a computer system or computer network, and may be in any form (including computer printouts magnetic or optical storage media, punched cards, punched tapes) or stored internally in the memory of the computer." 16. The aforementioned provisions make it clear that the information or data stored are part of the ele....
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....nnot be treated as 'goods' under the provisions of Section 110 of the Act. In the normal course, the transactions generally leave some sort of physical evidence in the form of things or records. In the Cyber world, the information may reside in several systems and can be deciphered using the process of computer. The Indian Evidence Act and the Information Technology Act of 2000, have provided for digital signatures, which make the digital records and digital signatures admissible. In view of the advancement of Cyber technology, the word "document" almost includes all the electronic records. Once they are treated as documents, the action of the department will fall under sub-sections (3) & (4) of Section 110 of the Act and not under sub-sections (1) & (2) of Section 110 of the Act. 18. Even the representative samples taken by the officers of the respondents cannot also be treated as goods under the facts and circumstances of the case. The representative samples so taken by the department are displayed by Shri Aravind Kumar, learned ASG, before this Court. They may be measuring about 2' x 2' and having the thickness of about 3 to 4 millimeters. Those representative samples are sta....