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1967 (11) TMI 116
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....la and party were returning to their station in two motor cars with a few accused persons arrested by them, the Sub-Inspector saw a person standing by the side of the public road near the Mission Hospital, with a filled cloth bag. The Sub-Inspector stopped his car. when the above person went to the car with the bad. Apparently, he was waiting for somebody to come in a car. But when he saw the police, he tried to escape. He was stopped and the bag was searched. It contained 789 Indian currency notes of one hundred rupees denomination, bundled into several lots and slips of papers attached thereto. He was arrested on the spot, and the whole currency notes were seized by the Sub-Inspector. The person thus arrested is the petitioner before us. He told the police that these currency notes were entrusted to him by one Kesavan Madhavan, that they were amounts remitted from foreign countries through secret agencies to be distributed to persons in India, and that he was waiting there for Kesavan Madhavan, who had promised to come in a car and meet him The arrest and seizure were made on the reasonable belief that the petitioner alone with others were guilty of offences under the Foreign Exc....
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....bsp; /INT/52/66M/66. Whereas for the purpose of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (VII of 1947), the Central Government considers it necessary or expedient to obtain and examine the information and documents seized from Sri Krishnan Sukumaran, and now in the possession of the Sub-Inspector of Police. Varkala, Trivandrum District, Kerala State or which in the opinion of the Central Government it is possible for the said Sub-Inspector of Police, Varkala to obtain and furnish. Now therefore in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (2) of Section 19 of the said Act the Central Government hereby requires the said Sub-Inspector of Police, Varkala, to furnish or to obtain and furnish to the Central Government with the said information and documents forthwith through Sri M. D. Gopina....
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....n in the petition for revising the order:-- (i) The application made by the respondents for handing over the currency notes purports to be under Section 19(2) of the Act, This Section has no application to this case, and at any rate, currency notes do not come within its ambit. (ii) Only the Reserve Bank of India or the Central Government is entitled to pass any order under Section 19(2) of the Act. In this case, the order was passed by an Assistant Director of the Enforcement Directorate: and, therefore, the order is bad on the face of it. (iii) The police has no power to seize the currency notes for any offence under the Act, The seizure is, therefore, illegal; and the notes should not have been handed over to the respondent. It is interesting to note in this case that the petitioner does not claim that the currency notes belong to him, nor does he even admit that the notes were seized from his possession. The prayer in the petition is only to quash the impugned order and direct the respondent to surrender the currency notes back to the court of the First Class Magistrate. As the petitioner does not claim any interest in this amount, he is not entitl....
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....al Government 6. We also agree with the petitioner's learned counsel that Section 19(2) of the Act has no application to this case. What it empowers the Central Government and the Reserve Bank is to require by an order in writing - "(i) any person in possession of any information, book or other document to furnish the same to them or any person specified in the order, for examination; or (ii) any such person, for whom it is possible in the opinion of the Central Government or Reserve Bank to obtain and furnish any information, book or other document, to obtain and furnish the same to the aforesaid authorities for examination." On 28-5-1966, when the Assistant Director of the Enforcement Directorate passed the order under Section 19(2), which is addressed to the Sub-Inspector of Police, he WAS not in possession of the currency notes or any documents. He had produced everything in court on 27-5-1966. The Sub-Inspector has no manner of right to gel them from the court. We do not think that it is within the power of the Central Government or the Reserve Bank to retire a person to obtain and furnish to them an information, book or document, which is in the possessi....
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....ned therein Section 25A of the Act empowers and requires officers of Police, among other": to assist officers of Enforcement in the enforcement of the Act. Section 550 of the Criminal Procedure Code also empowers a police officer to seize any property which may be alleged or suspected to have been stolen, or which may be found under circumstances which create suspicion of the commission of any offence So, in any view 'of the matter, the seizure of the currency notes by the Sub-Inspector from the possession of the petitioner was lawful. The only question for consideration is whether the respondent is entitled to get them from the court. The respondent has not stated in his application for releasing the currency notes to him under which provision of the law he has made the said application. But it is stated that Crime No. 83 of 1966, registered by the police, pursuant to seizure of the currency notes; and the arrest of the petitioner, involves offences under the Act and that the police has handed over the matter to the respondent for further action. It is also stated that currency note is document as defined in Section 19A(7) of the Act, that the currency notes in the custody of ....
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....as follows :-- "523 Procedure by police upon seizura of property taken under Section 51 or stolen- (1) The seizure by any police-officer of property taken under section 51, or alleged or suspected to have been stolen, or found under circumstances which create suspicion of the commission of any offence, shall be forthwith reported to a Magistrate, who shall make such order as he thinks fit respecting the disposal of such property or the delivery of such property to the person entitled to the possession thereof, or, if such person cannot be ascertained, respecting the custody and production of such property. Procedure where owner of property seized unknown - (2) If the person so entitled is known, the Magistrate may order the property to be delivered to him on such conditions (if any as the Magistrate thinks fit If such person is unknown, the Magistrate may detain it and shall, in such case, issue a proclamation specifying the articles of which such property 'consists and requiring any person who may have a claim thereto, to appear before him and establish his claim within six months from the date of such proclamation." 10. The learned couns....
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....at the Magistrate had no jurisdiction under Section 523 of the Criminal Procedure Code to order the delivery of the currency notes to the respondent. This contention was rejected by Madhavan Nair, J. slating : -- "Under Section 523 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, property seized by the police on suspicion and produced before a Magistrate has to be returned to the person entitled to the possession thereof. Normally, when no offence is found by the Magistrate the person entitled may be the person from whom the properly was seized. But if the enforcement Officer is entitled to seize the property immediately from such person, he may be the person entitled to the present possession thereof. It would be an empty formality, in the face of the application moved by the Enforcement Officer, to have the property delivered to the petitioners under Section 523 Crl. P. C. and then seized by the Enforcement Officer from the hands of the petitioners at the gate of the Magistrate's Court " In Smt. Godavari Shamrao v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1964 SC 1128, the appellants were detained under Rule 30 of the Defence of India Rules. 1962 by an order dated 7-11-1962 While they were in jail,....