9911796707
TMI Blog1987 (3) TMI 111X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... narration in para 17 of the judgment of the trial court, stated that :- "...... such chains are put on as 'kandora' on the waist of ladies and gents in Rajasthan. He has sold such kandoras and seen people putting on such kandoras in Rajasthan State on their waist. Such chains or kandoras can be prepared out of pure gold as well as mixed gold. In old times such kandoras used to be prepared out of pure gold. In these days such type of kandoras are sold out to us by people. The witness further states that the design of muddamal chain was much in vogue in Rajasthan as because of unsoldered hooks it would fetch full value on sale. By pure gold he meant gold of more than 99.60 purity or 24 carats purity. According to him about 25 years back shar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... say that the approach made by the trial court evinces a permissive and over-indulgent attitude towards the violators of laws enacted to prevent and punish economic offences. 3. The occasion for approaching this Court has been provided by the view taken by the High Court in regard to the charge for an offence under Section 135(1) read with Section 111 of the Customs Act. The charge against respondent No. 1 was that he was concerned with acquisition, carriage, keeping or concealing with the goods which were liable to be confiscated under Section 111 having regard to the fact that there was a prohibition against the import into India of goods which were found in his possession namely pure gold of the specified fineness i.e. 99.60 or 24 carat. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed gold in view of the statutory provision (Section 123 of Customs Act) relating to burden of proof which would justify raising the presumption that the article in question was made of smuggled gold. Whether or not the official concerned had seized the article in the "reasonable belief" that the goods were smuggled goods is not a question on which the Court can sit in appeal. The law to this effect has been declared in no ambiguous terms in Pukhran v. D.R. Kohli - AIR 1962 S.C. 1559 = 1962 (3) Supp. S.C.R. 866. This Court has administered caution to the Courts not to sit in appeal in regard to this question and has observed that if prima facie there are grounds to justify the belief the Courts have to accept the officer's belief regardless ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted with mercury and given an appearance of having been made of silver though it was made of pure gold of 99.60 purity or 24 carat, was sufficient even for a layman, not to speak of a Customs official, to entertain the belief that it was smuggled gold. Would any one who was wearing an article as an ornament, evidently for ostentatious purposes, give the article of pure gold the appearance of being made of silver? To repeat the observation made earlier one might coat an article of silver to give an appearance of having been made of gold but no one would ordinarily take the trouble and incur the expenditure to coat an article of gold in order to give it an appearance of having been made of silver. This was an extremely unusual circumstance wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... de in order to invoke the powers of the Court under Section 391 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which inter alia provides that in dealing with any appeal under Chapter XXIX the appeal court, if it thinks additional evidence to be necessary, shall record its reasons and may either take such evidence itself or ask it to be taken by a Magistrate. The High Court rejected the prayer on the ground that it did not consider it "expedient in the interests of justice to open a new vista of evidence" in view of the fact that the offence had taken place six years back. The mere fact that six years had elapsed, for which time lag the prosecution was in no way responsible, was no good ground for refusing to act in order to promote the interests ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iew white collar crimes with a permissive eye unmindful of the damage done to the National Economy and National Interest. The High Court was therefore altogether unjustified in rejecting the application made by the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor invoking the powers of the Court under Section 391 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. We are of the opinion that the application should have been granted in the facts and circumstances of the case with the end in view to do full and true justice. The application made by the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor is therefore granted. The High Court will issue appropriate directions for the recording of the evidence to prove the report of the Mint Master under Section 391 Cr. P.C. when the matter g ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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