TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1985 (12) TMI 362
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act 1974 (hereinafter referred to as COFEPOSA Act). We heard the writ petition on 18th September 1985 and after hearing the arguments advanced on both sides, we passed an order on the same date dismissing the writ petition. We now proceed to give our reasons for making that order. On the basis of information received by them, the Customs Officers at Panitanki Land Customs Station intercepted an auto-rickshaw bearing No. WGY-9854 coming from Nepal at about 8 a.m. in the morning of 20th November 1984. There were four occupants in the auto-rickshaw, namely, the petitioner, Raj Kumar Gupta, Prem Prasad Bothari, and Akadeshi Bahadur. These four occupants as well as the driver of the auto-r....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... the seizure of two pieces of foreign market gold which were in the pocket of his trousers. The petitioner was produced before the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Siliguri on 21st November 1984 and on an application made by him, he was released on bail by the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate on 5th December 1984. The second respondent who is the Joint Secretary to the Government of India thereafter passed an order dated 11th April 1985 under Section 3 of COFEPOSA Act directing that the petitioner be detained and kept in custody in the Central Jail, Patna. The order of detention recited that it was passed with a view to preventing the petitioner from smuggling goods. The grounds on which the order of detention was based were supplied t....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....s long lapse of time showed that the order of detention was vitiated by malafides. And the last ground was that the order of detention was made with a view to circumventing or bypassing the criminal prosecution instituted against the petitioner and the detaining authority had not applied its mind to the vital aspect that the power of detention cannot be used to subvert, supplant or substitute the punitive law. We do not think any of these three grounds can be sustained. So far the first ground is concerned, it is obvious that having regard to the nature of the activity of smuggling, an inference could legitimately be drawn even from a single incident of smuggling that the petitioner was indulging in smuggling of gold moreover. The written ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....satisfactorily explained by the time-chart set out as Annexure R-I to the counter affidavit filed by Shri A.K. Agnihotri on behalf of the respondents. It is no doubt true that where an unreasonably long period has elapsed between the date of the incident and the date of the order of detention, an inference may legitimately be drawn that there is no nexus between the incident and the order of detention and the order of detention may be liable to be struck down as invalid. But there can be no hard and fast rule as to what is the length of time which should be regarded sufficient to snap the nexus between the incident and the order of detention. We are of the view that here the lapse of time between the date of the incident and the date of the....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
...., as pointed out by this court in Subharta v. State of West Bengal, [1973] 3 S.C.C. 250, "the purpose of preventive detention being different from conviction and punishment and subjective satisfaction being necessary in the former while proof beyond reasonable doubt being necessary in the latter", the order of detention would not be bad merely because the criminal prosecution has failed. It was pointed out by this Court in that case that "the Act creates in the authority concerned a new jurisdiction to make orders for preventive detention on their subjective satisfaction on grounds of suspicion of commission in future of acts prejudicial to the community in general. This Jurisdiction is different from that of judicial trial i....