SAMPAT LAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners were travelling by bus from Delhi to Sirsa and near Bahadur Sales Tax Barrier, Police CID staff apprehended the petitioners. On search a plastic bag held by petitioner No.1 was found to contain primary gold weighing 1107 grammes valued at Rs.57,000/-. The petitioners were arrested for being in possession of gold as stolen property but were subsequently bailed out. The case was ultimately withdrawn on 12.03.1975 but the police authorities informed the Department of Central Excise about the recovery of primary gold and for necessary action under the Gold (Control) Act, 1968 (for short the said Act).

(2.) The Collector of Central Excise, Chandigarh, passed an oder dated 03.09.1976 confiscating the gold and imposing a penalty of Rs.2 lakhs on the petitioners under Section 74 of the said Act. The stand of the petitioners before the said authority was that certain ornaments belonging to different persons were handed over to them and the gold was melted out of the ornaments and was being taken to Delhi for die-cutting of the melted gold. The petitioners claimed that they forgot to accompany the register of certified goldsmith from Jodhpur and thus could not get die-cutting work done in Delhi. The authority noted that there is no dispute about the recovery of primary gold or the absence of the certificate of goldsmith even assuming petitioner No.2 is a certified goldsmith. This was so since even a certified goldsmith could not possess more than 300 grammes of primary gold.

(3.) The authority found that the statements made and story set up was audacious. Despite the elaborate planning it could not be conceived that the gold in question would be taken to Delhi without appropriate certificate and then be brought back. In between two persons also went away to Hardwar. It is also noticed that there is no absence of die-cutting work at Jodhpur. Neither were the names of die-cutters in Delhi given nor the shops visited.