Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
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e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | Notice Forfeiture of properties |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Dismissed |
Headnote | SMUGGLERS AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE MANIPULATORS (FORFEITURE OF PROPERTY) ACT, 1976: S.6(1) - Notice under - Requirement of recording reasons in the notice -Plea of appellant that notice issued u/s.6 was defective as it did not contain reasons which made competent authority believe that notice scheduled properties were illegal acquired property - Held: Plea not sustainable - There is no express statutory requirement to communicate the reasons issuance of notice u/s.6 of the Act - Secondly, the reasons, though not initially supplied alongwith the notice were subsequently supplied thereby enabling the appellant to effectively meet the case of the respondents - The appellant not only filed a rejoinder to the said notice but he was also given a hearing before an order of forfeiture u/s.7 was passed - Further, an order of forfeiture is an appealable order where the correctness of the decision u/s.7 to forfeit the properties could be examined. Ss.7, 2(2) - Forfeiture of properties - If violative of Article 20 of Constitution - Held: The application of the Act is limited to persons who have either suffered a conviction under one of the acts specified in s.2(2)(a) of the Act or detained under the COFEPOSA subsequent to the commencement of the Act in question - Apart from that there are other categories of persons to whom the Act applies - Of all the five categories of persons to whom the Act is made applicable, only one category specified u/s.2(2)(a) happens to be of persons who are found guilty of an offence under one of the enactments mentioned therein and convicted - The other four categories of persons to whom the Act is applicable are persons unconnected with any crime or conviction under any law while the category of persons falling u/s.2(2)(b) are persons who are believed by the State to be violators of law - The other three categories are simply persons who are associated with either of the two categories mentioned in s.2(2)(a) and (b) - At least with reference to the four categories other than the one covered by s.2(2)(a), the forfeiture/deprivation of the property is not a consequence of any conviction for an offence - Therefore, with reference to these four categories, the question of violation of Article 20 does not arise - In case of first category, Article 20 would have no application for the reason, conviction is only a factor by which the Parliament chose to identify the persons to whom the Act be made applicable - The Act does not provide for the confiscation of the properties of all the convicts falling u/s.2(2)(a) or detenues falling u/ s.2(2)(b). s.2(2) - Forfeiture of illegally acquired property - Legality of - Held: There is a public interest in ensuring that persons who cannot establish that they have legitimate sources to acquire the assets held by them do not enjoy such wealth - Such a deprivation would certainly be consistent with the requirement of Article 300A and 14 of the Constitution which prevent the State from arbitrarily depriving a subject of his property - Even otherwise, in view of its inclusion in the IXth Schedule, the Act is immune from attack on the ground that it violates any of the rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution by virtue of the declaration under Article 31-B - Constitution of India, 1950 - Articles 14, 31-B, 300A.LEGISLATION: Retrospective operation - Held: It is a well settled principle of constitutional law that sovereign legislative bodies can make laws with retrospective operation; and can make laws whose operation is dependent upon facts or events anterior to the making of the law - However, criminal law is excepted from such general Rule, under another equally well settled principle of constitutional law, i.e. no ex post facto legislation is permissible with respect to criminal law - Article 20 contains such exception to the general authority of the B sovereign legislature functioning under the Constitution to make retrospective or retroactive laws - Criminal law - Constitution of India, 1950 - Article 20. WRIT PETITION: Re-appreciation of evidence - Scope of - Plea that in view of the failure of High Court to examine the tenability of the order of the forfeiture as confirmed by the appellate tribunal the matter is required to be remitted to High Court for appropriate consideration - Held: Plea is rejected - In the writ petition, except challenging order of forfeiture on the two legal grounds, there was no other ground on which correctness of the order of forfeiture was assailed - For the first time in the instant appeal, an attempt was made to argue that conclusions drawn by competent authority that the properties forfeited were illegally acquired - Appellant sought reappreciation of the evidence without even an appropriate pleading in the writ petition - Therefore, no reason to remit the matter to the High Court. |
Judge | Hon'ble Mr. Justice Jasti Chelameswar |
Neutral Citation | 2014 INSC 42 |
Petitioner | Biswanath Bhattacharya |
Respondent | Union Of India & Others |
SCR | [2014] 1 S.C.R. 885 |
Judgement Date | 2014-01-21 |
Case Number | 772-773 |
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