TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (7) TMI 1135
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....here. He alleges that he had handed over the car to one of his family friends as there was none to use his car at his house. Petitioner left for Dubai on 09.06.2022 and returned only on 22.11.2022. On his return, he learnt that his vehicle was seized from the parking area of the Cochin International Airport on 26.07.2022 by the Customs authorities. On further enquiry, it was revealed that two persons had travelled in his car to the airport to receive a passenger carrying 931.73 gms of gold, which was apparently smuggled into the country. 3. Immediately on getting information of the seizure of his vehicle, petitioner filed an application for its release. In the meantime, petitioner realised that the seizure of the vehicle was illegal as, ev....
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....ch was intended to be transported and handed over to Sri. Muhammed Jabir. In his statement under section 108 of the Act, Sri. Abdulrahiman, who was the person standing outside the car, alluded that one Sri. Shameer had handed over the gold to him at Doha, and he was asked to handover the same at Cochin International Airport for remuneration. According to the respondent, Sri. Muhammed Jabir was the person in possession of the vehicle, and questioning him is crucial to identify the modus operandi of smuggling gold and its transportation, and therefore detention of the vehicle is essential. The respondent also pointed out that petitioner must take recourse to the effective remedy under section 122 of the Act, and therefore writ petition was so....
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....s under the Act. Significantly, the said power to search does not confer a right to seize the vehicle on suspicion. 10. Section 110(1) of the Act gives the power to seize vehicles or documents, or things. Section 110(1), (2) and (3) to the extent relevant (excluding the provisos) reads as follows: "S.110. Seizure of goods, documents and things (1) If the proper officer has reason to believe that any goods are liable to confiscation under this Act, he may seize such goods: (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: (3) T....
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....ood and sufficient cause; (d) any conveyance from which any warehoused goods cleared for exportation, or any other goods cleared for exportation under a claim for drawback, are unloaded, without the permission of the proper officer; (e) any conveyance carrying imported goods which has entered India and is afterwards found with the whole or substantial portion of such goods missing, unless the master of the vessel or aircraft is able to account for the loss of, or deficiency in, the goods. (2) Any conveyance or animal used as a means of transport in the smuggling of any goods or in the carriage of any smuggled goods shall be liable to confiscation, unless the owner of the conveyance or animal proves that it was so used without the k....
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....of the car as a means of transport of the smuggled goods. 14. The power of confiscation is a penal provision. The courts ought not to ascribe a meaning broader than that it ordinarily bears, especially in the case of a penal provision. As is settled through a long line of decisions, including those in R. Kalyani v. Janak C. Mehta and Others [(2009) 1 SCC 516] and U. Suvetha v State by Inspector of Police and Another [(2009) 6 SCC 757], penal provisions are to be strictly construed. In the absence of any definition provided by the special statute, the ordinary meaning must be ascribed to the words used in the statute. Therefore the words 'used as a means of transport' in section 115(2) of the Act can only be interpreted as 'already used as ....