SAT DEV SETHI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SAT Dev Sethi Las challenged his detention order dated 4. 9. 1992 Annexure P-2 issued under Section 3 (1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as the 'cofeposa' Act') by means of this Criminal Writ petition moved under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(2.) BRIEFLY, the facts are that Sat Dev Sethi after landing at New Delhi, Air port, on 13. 4. 1992 from Dubai, was utilising a wheel chair which he had brought along with him. He was accompanied by his Minor son. He was intercepted by the Preventive Officers of the Customs Department. The wheel chair was cut open before the witnesses and 100 foreign marked gold biscuits of 10 tolas each were recovered from the two hollow cross bars of the chair of the petitioner. His body is downwards crippled and this made him eligible to utilise a wheel chair through he had been working as a Pilot in England earlier

(3.) THE learned counsel for the respondents has argued that the petitioner was apprehended at New-Delhi and gold biscuits were also recovered there and not at Chandigarh and that this court had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition. In this regard attention has been invited to Gurdeep Kaur v. The Union of India, 1990 (2) Recent C. R. 20 where recovery was made near Abmedabad and some enquiiy in that regard was made at Mohali in Punjab and this court held that the writ petition could not be entertained at Chandigarh merely because some formal enquiry was made at or near Chandigarh. It appears that this writ was admitted on 17. 1. 1992 and registry was directed to fix it for actual hearing. The notice Annexure P 2 was served at the alleged address of the petitioner, of Chandigarh, by the respondents on 4. 9. 1992 and no preliminary objection regarding jurisdiction has been taken m the reply of the respondents dated 31. 3. 1993.