1986 (1) TMI 105

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....acts which gave rise to this petition are that on 5-3-1985 the officers of Enforcement Directorate, Jalandhar, intercepted Anoop Kumar respondent and recovered foreign currency from his possession. The foreign currency was seized since it was found to be in the possession of the respondent in contravention of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, and the respondent was arrested by the Enforcement Officer under Section 35 of the said Act. As required under sub-section (2) of Section 35 of the aforesaid Act, the respondent was produced by the Enforcement Officer before the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate before whom the Enforcement Officer made an application on 6-3-1985 praying therein that the respondent ....

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....etitioner, has placed reliance on a Division Bench judgment of the Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad passed in Special Criminal Application No. 585 of 1982[Shri N.H. Dave, Inspector of Customs v. Shri Mohamed Akhtar Hussain Ibrahim and others - 1984 (IS) E.L.T. 353 (Guj.)]. Their lordships of the Gujarat High Court, in their elaborate judgment in Shri Mohamed Akhtar Hussain Ibrahim's case (supra) came to a finding in the following terms : "We have no hesitation in reaching the conclusion that the Magistrate had the power to remand the arrested persons produced before him by the officer of Customs to judicial custody." It may be appropriate to state here that the relevant provisions of Section 104 of the Customs act, 1962, and those of S....

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....ion to effect arrest of a person in respect of whom the officer of Customs has reason to believe that he has been guilty of an offence punishable under Section 135 would be rendered meaningless and purposeless. What purpose would be served by merely effecting arrest of the person in respect of whom there is reason to believe that he has been guilty of an offence punishable under Section 135 of the Customs Act, if he can arrest him only for the purpose of taking to the Magistrate and releasing him from his custody forthwith without anything more? The power to arrest would be a power to arrest for no purpose and the obligation to produce will also be superfluous requirement of law or an empty formality to be completed with, for, after produci....