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2020 (5) TMI 538 - HC - VAT and Sales TaxMaintainability of petition - Jurisdiction - power of Excise Officials of the Golaghat district to search and seize any “IMFL” consignments originating from the State of Arunachal Pradesh which is meant for State of Nagaland - HELD THAT:- In the present case in hand, it is the Inspector of Excise, Golaghat (Sadar) who initiated the search in the consignments which were on transit from Arunachal Pradesh to Nagaland purportedly through a specified route from Naharlagun in the State of Arunachal Pradesh to Dimapur in the State of Nagaland via State of Assam through Bandordewa, Tezpur and Golaghat as per the consignment notes. The vehicles were seized on 24.11.2019 and on 25.11.2019 for violation of route as it was seized at a place called Telgarom in the Golaghat district. The provisions of Sections 42 and 43 of the Act 2000 are taken note of in order to show the legislative intent and purpose of the Government of Assam in Excise Department vesting the sphere of activity in the field of crime detection and crime punishment upon the officials of Excise department inasmuch as investigation of an offence is the field exclusively reserved for the executive through the Police Department, the Superintendence over which vests in the State Government. The report to the learned CJM, Golaghat dated 10.01.2020, records the suspicion of the Excise official about the commission of an offence which he was empowered to investigate due to violation of route indicated in the passes issued by the officials of Arunachal Pradesh. Once such suspicion is recorded, the empowered Excise official is authorized to exercise the power conferred upon a police officer carrying out an investigation under Sections 160-171 of the Cr.P.C. The “investigation” envisaged in the Act 2000 is the one defined under Section 2(h) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 which includes all the proceedings under the Code for the collection of evidence conducted by a police officer - the action of the Excise official or officials in breaking the digital lock of the consignments falls under Section 165 Cr.P.C. read with Sections 42 and 43 of the Act, 2000. Chapter IX of the Act, 2000 prescribes the penalties and procedure for the offences covered by it. For investigation the offences as mentioned in the report of Excise official requires no proof but a prima facie satisfaction is required and not beyond that. Merely, the consignments were exported from a State and imported to another one and there being no applicability in both the States of the Act, 2000 that itself cannot be the ground to hold that the Excise officials had no jurisdiction to carry on the search and seizure of the consignments while on transit through an area covered by the force of the Act, 2000 - The jurisdiction exercised for investigation by the Excise officials of the Golaghat district is proper inasmuch as it evolves out of Section 183 under Chapter XIII of the Cr.P.C., 1973 through Sections 42 and the investigation part under Section 43 of the Act, of 2000. Petition dismissed.
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