MANGAL DAS Vs. COLLECTOR OF C EX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution has been filed by Mangal Das, son of Nihal Chand, resident of Madari Tola, Jaunpur, for a writ of Mandamus directing respondents 1 and 2, who are Collector and Assistant Collector, Central Excise, Allahabad, to return the primary gold which was confiscated by the order dated 6th April, 1967. The order reads :

(2.) The petitioner did not deposit the amount mentioned in the aforesaid order within a period of three months. He preferred an appeal to the Collector under the Central Excise Act against the same in 1967 which was dismissed on 24-1-1968 on the ground of limitation. Thereafter, the petitioner received another letter from the Superintendent, Central Excise permitting him to deposit the money ordered by the letter dated 10-10-1978 within ten days. The material portion of the letter has been annexed as Annexure 2 to the writ petition, which is as under :

(3.) The controversy raised by the petitioner is that the Collector, Central Excise has no power to fix the period of three months of taking of the confiscated gold and as the order granting time was illegal and was beyond his jurisdiction, it was open to the petitioner to deposit the amount at any point of time which he desired. This bald argument is not acceptable to us. To make an order effective, the Collector could have fixed the time was done in the instant case. This point of time was ancillary and accidental to the main power. We find substance in the submission of the petitioner that since by the letter dated October 10,1979, the Superintendent had granted ten days time for complying with the order dated 6th April 1967 and that whatever amount was due from the petitioner, the whole of it was deposited within that period, the petitioner be entitled to get back the confiscated primary gold.