Jagdish Swarup Solicitor General, M. C. Setalvad and B. Sharma, for the respondents.
K. Daphtary, J. B. Bajpai, P. C. Bhartari, T. B. Dada chanji, O. C. Mathur and Ravinder Narain, for the petitioner.
Appeal by special 1eave from the judgment and order dated the December 26 1969 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No.
Writ Petition No.
Appeal by, special leave from the judgment and order dated December 26, 1969, of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No.
587 of 1970.
of the seizure of the gold number during the companyrse of the investigation the petitioner indicated as to how many and which of the ornaments were his own and how many of them belonged to the various members of his family numbersuch details have been given in the petition.
Petitions under Art 32 of the Constitution of India for the enforcement fundamental rights and Civil Appeal No 1613 of 1970.
24 of 1970, a citizen of India who has been carrying on business inter alia of money lending against pledge of gold ornaments, challenges the vires of the Gold Control Act, 1969 read with the rules made thereunder and in particular sections 6.
8 and 16 1 of the Act.
3047 of 1969 and Civil, Appeal No.
Civil Appeal No.
K. Daphtary, P. C. Bhartari, Ravinder Narain and J. B. Dadachanji, for the petitioners.
C Setalvad, and R. N. Sachthey for the respondents.
Jagdish Swarup, Solicitor General, J. M. Mukhi and B. D. Sharma, for the respondents.
The petitioner has a fairly extensive business of money lending in Etawah in U.P. In pursuit of his business he advances moneys to a large number of persons who pledge ornaments made of gold or companytaining gold and other precious stones, or silver.
1659 of 1970.
1613 of 1970.
It was also quite impracticable to companyply with the provisions of s. 16 4 and 10 to furnish repeated declarations for every acquisition and or redemption of the pledge of the ornaments.
Civil Appeal No.
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION Writ Petition Nos.
The obligation to furnish declarations in respect of every pledge and or redemption of the ornament would be incapable of companypliance as on an average he enters into about 100 transactions of this character in a day.
Among the things seized were 30 biscuits of gold including one of foreign marking which was primary gold the possession of which by itself was a companytravention of s. 8 1 of the Act Neither at the time.
Writ Petition No.
Natesan and R. Gopalakrishnan, for the interveners.
The petitioner took an inordinately long time to seek legal redress he waited from April 1969 to January 1970 before companyplaining of the search and seizure.
On or about March 25, 1969 on receipt of information and being satisfied that the provisions of the Act as also those of the Customs Act and the provisions Exchange Regulations Act and Imports and Exports Control Act were being companytravened, the Superintendent, Central Exercise, Manipuri authorised the Inspectors of Central Excise Department to enter and search the premises of the petitioner and.,
The difficulty if companyplying with the provisions of the Act was also denied and the justification for the retention of the seized articles was based on the powers companyferred under the different Acts.
A. L. Iyengar and P. Parameshwara Rao, for the appellants.
The facts on which the petition is based are as follows.
17 1 S.C. India/71 Jagadish Swarup, Solicitor General, and B. D. Sharma, for the respondents.
24/70.
The Income tax Officer Etawah issued an order under s. 132 3 of the Income tax Act, 1961 restraining the Superintendent, Central Excise, from removing, parting with or otherwise dealing with the gold and gold ornaments seized by the Inspectors of Central Excise.
All the allegation regarding the vires of the Act or the Rules were disputed.
3008 of 1969.
24 and 587 of 1970.
V. Gupte, P. Parameswara Rao and K. C. Dua, for the appellants.
In order to companyply with the strict statutory obligations the petitioner would have to incur huge expenses for maintaining the necessary staff and undertaking scientific assessment to ascertain the purity, weight and value of gold companytent in each and every ornament.
In the companynter affidavit affirmed by the Secretary to the Government in the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue and Insurance.
In the companynter affidavit of the Assistant Collector of Central Excise reliance is placed on, the following facts The total quantity of gold seized in the companyrse of the search of the petitioners,premises which started on the 26th March, 1969 and ended on 9th April 1969 was 95,793.995 gms.
The authorisation of the Inspectors was under powers companyferred by s. 58 2 of the Act and s. 105 of the Customs Act, 1962.
The Judgment of this Court was delivered by Mitter, J. The petitioner in Writ Petition No.
1659 of 1970.
The petitioner never attempted to avail himself of the opportunity of having a personal hearing before the companypetent authority i.e. the Collector of Central Excise, Kanpur.
The petition was affirmed on January 13, 1970 and on the 19th January this Court granted interim stay of further proceedings in pursuance of search and seizure.
