RAM CHANDRA CHOUDHARY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ application the petitioner has sought relief for issuance of an appropriate writ or direction to the respondents who are officers of the Customs Department to return a jeep bearing registration No. BPF 11 of which the petitioner claims to be owner (vide copy of the Registration Certificate, Annexure-I to the writ application).

(2.) The relevant facts of the case lie in a very narrow compass. : The vehicle was seized on 9-9-1993 by the Inspector of Customs (Preventive) (Respondent No. 4) on Indo-Nepal Border at a place near Muzaffarpur in pursuance of the provision of Section 110(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 (for short, 'the Act') when it was found loaded with Some computer parts, which, according to the custom officials (Respondents), were foreign goods made in Malaysia and Japan, and were being smuggled on the jeep. The driver of the jeep along with its two occupants were arrested.

(3.) According to the case of the petitioner, the driver namely, Chandesh-war Mahto, had gone to Muzaffarpur for some repair works of the vehicle and registration certificate and other relevant papers were in the jeep when the same was seized by the respondents. The petitioner, according to his case, did not receive any notice from the respondents for a pretty long time informing him on the grounds on which the. vehicle was seized and was proposed to be confiscated under the provisions of the Act. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner was that since no notice, as contemplated by the provision of Section 124 of the Act, was issued and served on the petitioner who is the owner of the jeep within six months the jeep has to be released to the petitioner in view of the provision of Sub-section (2) of Section 110 of the Act, and that though the petitioner also sent an application (a copy of which is Annexure-2) on 26-3-1994 to respondent No. 1 [the Collector of the Customs] praying for release of the vehicle, but there was no response, despite a reminder [a copy of which is Annexure-2 (1) of the writ application].