SATNAM SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been brought under Art.226 of the Constitution of India read with S.482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking quashment of the detention order dated March 27, 1989, passed by a Joint Secretary to the Government of India, under S.3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (for short 'COFEPOSA Act') with a view to preventing the petitioner from engaging in transporting and concealing smuggled goods and dealing in smuggled goods otherwise than by engaging in keeping smuggled goods and the declaration dated April 10, 1989, issued under S.9(1) of the COFEPOSA Act.

(2.) The facts of the case, in brief, are that on a secret information the officers of the Directorate of the Revenue Intelligence, New Delhi, intercepted a truck No. PAT-410 on March 5, 1989, at Kundli alongwith the petitioner and Sukhwinder Singh and Dilbagh Singh, driver and cleaner of the truck were also found present in the truck and were apprehended, 199 foreign marked gold biscuits were recovered from the cavity on the righthand side door of the said truck. This truck was registered in the name of Jitender Singh, brother-in-law of the petitioner, but was purchased by the petitioner and that one Amrik Singh, a close friend of petitioner's father, is stated to have been indulging in large-scale smuggling of gold from Dubai to India for the last 10 or 12 years and he has been smuggling gold through Indo-Pak Border and he had employed a number of persons in that connection and the petitioner's father had been helping Amrik Singh in transportation of smuggled gold from Amritsar to other places and was getting Rs. 30,000/- for each consignment of 100 smuggled fold biscuits and the petitioner, after coming of age, had started helping his father in this work. On March 4, 1989, as directed by his father, the petitioner met one Binda, a carrier of Amrik Singh, Binda introduced him with another man and told him that that person would deliver 199 smuggled gold biscuits which the petitioner should carry in his truck to Delhi. In this way, the petitioner was handed over 199 smuggled gold biscuits and he with the help of Sukhwinder Singh and Dilbagh Singh concealed the said gold biscuits in the aforesaid truck. On the information given by the petitioner, residential premises of the petitioner at 175, Basant Avenue, Amritsar, were searched on March 6, 1989 and 100 foreign marked gold biscuits were recovered.

(3.) Various grounds have been urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner in support of the writ petition but it is not necessary to refer to all of them because, in my view, this writ petition is liable to succeed on a very short ground.