1978 (2) TMI 101

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....scharge of the accused in the Criminal Court and also in the adjudication proceeding, it is open to the Govt. of India to move against the order of discharge passed by the Ld. Magistrate. It appears that there was an adjudication proceeding held in respect of the Gold seized and the adjudicating authority by an order confiscated the gold, but declined to impose a penalty on the opposite party. It ....

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....un and not an order in personum. In the case of Thomas Dana v. State of Punjab (1959 S.C. 375) the same view was taken and the court after examining the whole question came to the conclusion that penalties imposed by the Customs Collector and also confiscation order by him are not prosecution and punishment within the meaning of Article 20(2) of the Constitution of India and the protection of that....

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.... challenged the Department under section 128 of the Customs Act, 1962, as any person aggrieved by any decision or order passed under the Act may file an appeal to the appropriate authority. The words `any person' does not only cannots the individual from whom seizures were made, but includes any juristic person or artificial person. Thus the department could have filed an appeal u/s 128 of the Cus....

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....te. Here hat was not done. The order was sought to be challenged in a criminal prosecution which lay undoubtedly, but which ended in a discharge. The order of discharge is a judicial order. It cannot be said to be perverse, when the adjudicating authority which is a pro-administration administrative Tribunal refused to impose any penalty. The Ld. Magistrate considered the evidence and in his view,....