TMI Blog1987 (3) TMI 120X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o do so. The learned counsel for the petitioner has nothing to say about this order and that is why he has approached this court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. Although I am not sitting as a Revisional Court I must point out that the order of the learned Magistrate in rejecting the application under Section 245(2) Cr.P.C. is quite legal because there is no power vested in the trial court to discharge an accused person after being charged. 3. The facts of the present case are that the adjudication proceedings against the petitioner under the Customs Act were initiated before the Collector of Customs, wherein the Collector imposed a fine of Rs.1,00,000/-. This fine was reduced to Rs. 10,000/- by the Board by way of appeal. The petitioner thereaf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was that after having been exhonerated by a departmental authority the department could not initiate the criminal prosecution as it would amount to double jeopardy. The Supreme Court held that the Collector of Customs was not trying a criminal case and was sitting in departmental adjudication, which is no bar to the criminal prosecution and it does not amount to double jeopardy. In fact the Supreme Court held that there is no violation of Article 20(2). 6. Mr. Grover has invited my attention to the case Uttam Chand and others v. I.T.O. Central Circle, Amritsar reported in I.T.R. Volume 133 (1982) page 909. This is relied upon in support of the contention that in case the departmental authorities on a particular set of facts came to the co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... It cannot pass a sentence of imprisonment. The Tribunal being successor of the Central Government is now taking decisions in place of the Central Government. A decision by the Tribunal in the proper sense of the word therefore, is a decision of a departmental authority drawn on the basis of a set of facts and evidence. The least that can be said is that if the department does not feel aggrieved of the finding of the Tribunal and accepts it as final and correct, then it has to be contented with it. I, therefore, fail to understand as to how on the same set of facts and evidence, the department can foist criminal liability upon a person about whom it has accepted that on this set of facts and evidence he cannot even be proceeded against in th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
