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2001 (3) TMI 97 - SC - CustomsWhy the gold in question should not be confiscated and penalty imposed under the Customs Act? Whether the High Court was justified in reversing the finding of fact recorded by the statutory authorities? Held that:- Both the authorities below also rejected the document produced by Balan on the ground that the gold mentioned in that document could not be correlated to the gold recovered from the possession of the respondent. We do not find any perversity in the appreciation of this evidence by the original authority and the tribunal. It is based on these facts and circumstances that the gold seized from the possession of the respondent was confiscated by the order of the original authority as confirmed by the appellate authority. These findings of the authorities below to which we have made a brief reference to show that the findings are based on the material on record and, in our opinion, are arrived at on a reasonable and legitimate assessment of the evidence on record. The High Court, however, by the impugned order came to the conclusion that the initial burden of proving that the goods in question were smuggled, lay on the Department which according to it, was not discharged by the Department. This conclusion of the High Court is obviously based on a misappreciation of the evidence that was already considered by the lower authorities. The High Court, in our opinion, not only erred in reappreciating the evidence already considered by the authorities below and in that process committed a further error of substituting its subjective opinion in the place of the findings of the authorities below. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the finding of the High Court that the concurrent conclusions of the statutory authorities were either not based on evidence or were perverse, is unsustainable. Appeal allowed.
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