TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1959 (10) TMI 1
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....headquarters at Bharatpur, received information that one Sulled and his son, Rehman, the respondent herein, had cultivated tobacco but had not paid the excise duty payable thereon. On 9-9-1953, the Deputy Superintendent, accompanied by an Inspector of Central Excise, a sepoy, a chowkidar and two motbirs, went to the house of Rehman at 2 p.m. with a view to search his house to find out whether he had stored tobacco there. When they declared their intention to do so, the respondent and one Dhamman, it is alleged, obstructed the making of the search; with the result that the Deputy Superintendent fell down and received some injuries. The respondent and Dhamman were prosecuted, and the Munsif-Magistrate, Hinduan, discharged Dhamman but convicte....
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....ty of tobacco stored in the house of the respondent for imposing excise duty on the said article and not to make any investigation with a view to prosecute the respondent, the mode of search prescribed under Section 103 of the Code which applies generally to all searches, has to be followed and not that provided under Section 165 of the Code applies to a search made by a police officer during the investigation of an offence. (2) Assuming that Section 165 of the Code applies, the said section confers a power or jurisdiction on a police officer to make a search and prescribes the procedure to be followed in making the search. The recording of the reasons relates to jurisdiction and, therefore, the excise officer, who has already derived his p....
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....ng the production, manufacture and processing of excisable goods, prescribing a machinery and a procedure for imposing duties on the said goods, and collection thereof, and, in particular, providing a special procedure for unmanufactured tobacco in respect of the said matters; see Sections 3, 6 and 8 of the Act and Chapter IV of the Rules. Section 9 imposes penalties for the contravention of the provisions mentioned therein which include the provisions regulating the introduction of excisable goods and the supply of any information in respect thereof. Rule 210 provides that the breach of the Rules shall, where no other penalty is provided, be punishable with a penalty which may extend to one thousand rupees and with confiscation of the good....
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.... for persons wrongfully confined, and the other sections are general provisions relating to reach warrants, duties of persons incharge of closed places and the requisitioning of persons to witness searches. Section 153, forms the third group and it falls under Chapter XIII of the Code which provides for the preventive action of the police. Under Section 153, a police officer can make a search without a warrant for the purpose of inspecting or searching for any weights or measures or instruments for weighing used or kept within the limits of his station, if he has reason to believe that the weights etc. are false. The fourth group of sections appear in Chapter XIV which provides for searches by a police officer during the investigation of a ....
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.... of a cognizable offence and in the latter the authorized officer makes the search to ascertain whether a person contravened the provisions of the Act or the Rules which is an offence. There is also no reason why conditions should be imposed in the matter of a search by the police officer under Section 165 of the Code but no such safeguard need be provided in the case of a search by the excise officer under the Rules. We think that the legislature, by stating in Section 18 of the Act that the searches under the Act and the Rules shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Code relating to searches, clearly indicated that the appropriate provisions of the Code shall govern searches authorised under the Act and the Rules. We....