RUJIRA NAROOLA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Ravi Prakash (Senior Central Govt. Standing Counsel) Mr. Amitabrata Roy Mr. K. K. Maity Mr. Aman Malik Mr. Bhaskar Prasad Banerjee .. For the Customs Authority.

(2.) Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a Thai National and a summons under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 has been issued to the petitioner on 26th March, 2019 directing the petitioner to appear before the Additional Commissioner of Customs (Airport and Admin.) Customs House, Kolkata on 8th April, 2019. Learned Counsel further submits that the summons is void ab-initio as no independent formation of opinion was made by the Joint Commissioner of Customs himself before issuance of such summons.

(3.) Learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner further submits that the summons was issued on 26th March, 2019 in connection with an offence under Section 133 of the Customs Act, 1962, but on the self-same issue, a written information had already been submitted before the NSCBI Airport Police Station, Kolkata on 22nd March, 2019 by the customs department and thus the action of Joint Commissioner of Customs in issuing the summons on 26th March, 2019 is barred under Article 20 of the Constitution of India.