2016 (4) TMI 97

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....ternational Airport, Terminal-3 (Respondent No.4 herein). According to the Petitioner, Nepalese currency of the value of Rs. 5 lakhs equal to Indian Rs. 3.1 lakhs were seized. The Petitioner was given a detention receipt No. 19455 dated 17th June, 2014 by Respondent No. 4. 2. The Petitioner states that he is a non-resident Indian and is working as a salesman in Dubai. He states that his family is settled in India and he frequently visits them. 3. On 7th July, 2014, the Petitioner made an application to the Respondents through an Advocate for release of the currency. He states that he has till date not received any reply from the Respondents. 4. The stand taken by the Respondents in the counter affidavit is that apart from seeking r....

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....able to point out any provision in the Act that permitted 'detention' of goods in lieu of 'seizure'. She was also unable to say if there was any protocol or manual devised by the Department of Customs for timely disposal of applications for release of seized goods. She repeatedly stated that the detention of the currency in the present case was at the Petitioner's own request and that it was the Petitioner who failed to come forward to produce the documents necessary to satisfy the Customs Department that he was entitled to the release of the seized currency in his favour. 8. At the outset, it requires to be observed that the legislative intent has made clear in Section 110(2) of the Act which reads as under: "S. 1....

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.... The upshot of the above discussion is that the Customs Department cannot take shelter under the device of 'detention' of goods in order to avoid the consequences flowing from the 'seizure' of goods. In other words, if the Customs Department is unable to give a SCN under Section 124 (a) of the Act within six months (plus another six months where a specific order to that effect has been passed) then in terms of Section 110 (2) of the Act, the said goods have to be released to the person from whom they were seized. 11. In the present case, there appears to be no legal justification for the Customs Department not 'seizing' the Nepalese currency recovered from the Petitioner in the first place and secondly, in not giv....