1981 (8) TMI 82

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....he order be stated briefly: The vessel arrived from Persian Gulf in Bombay Port and on receipt of information, the Officers of the Customs House boarded the vessel and searched it in the presence of the Ship's Master on April 11,1977. During the course of the search, dutiable and restricted goods such as radio, cassette tape recorders, transistor radios, tapes, watches, etc. were found concealed in various places such as in sand base near forward entrace to hatch Nos. 1 and 2, ceiling panel, under the bearings in tunnel and air ventilators. The Officers boarded the ship on four or five consecutive days and every time found some items of the smuggled goods. Some of the articles were handed over by the Master of the Ship to the authorities ha....

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.... Sec. 115 of the Act provides for confiscation of conveyance and sub-sec. (2) reads as under : "(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 knowledge or connivance of the owner himself, his agent, if any, and the person in charge of the conveyance or animal and that each of them had taken all such precautions against such use as are for the time being specified in the rules: Provided that where any such conveyance is used for the carnage of goods or passengers for hire, the owner of any conveyance shall be given an option to pay in lieu....

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....the finding that the Master or owner had no knowledge of the goods, the order of confiscation of the ship was totally bad. Shri Sethna, the learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Department, on the other hand, submits that the finding of the Additional Collector was restricted only in regard to the imposition of penalty under Section 112 of the Act and that finding should not be read while determining the liability under Section 115 of the Act. I find no merit in this submission. It is not permissible to bifurcate the order and to claim that a particular finding should be read or restricted only to the proposed action under Section 112 of the Act and not for other penalty. The proceedings adopted by the Additional Collector are quasi-cr....