IMPORTANT POINT
The expression gazetted officer of enforcement appearing in Section 40 (1) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act must take its colour from the context in which it appears and it means any person appointed to he an officer of enforcement under Section 4 holding a gazetted post.

Headnote:Constitution of India, 1950 - Articles 32, 226 and 22(5) - Foreign Exchange Regulation Act-Section 40(1) and Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1947-Section 3(1)-Petitioner's husband detained under -Order of detention was based on certain seized documents-Petitioner prayed for the issuance of a writ of- habeas corpus-Petitioner contended that the impugned order of detention was based on no material in as much as R.C. Singh was not a gazetted officer of Enforcement and therefore the statement recorded by him had no evidentiary value and thus could not form the basis upon which his subjective satisfaction could be reached and contended that there was non-application of mind on the part of the detaining authority and therefore the impugned order of detention was bad as there were factual misstatements detailed in terms A to F of the grounds of detention and petitioner also contended that there was infraction of the constitutional safeguards contained in Article 22(5) due to the failure on the part of the Central Government to consider the representation filed by the detenu under Section 8 (b) read with Section 11 of the Act. alleged to have been presented through one Ashok Jain and received at the president's secretariate and therefore the continued detention of the petitioner was rendered invalid and unconstitutional-Whether contentions were rightly raised? (No) (Paras 17, 18, 20, 22, 24 to 31, 34)
       Result:
       Petitions dismissed and Order accordingly.

JUDGMENT

S. Natarajan, J.- This petition for special leave directed against the judgment and order of the Bombay High Court dated May 3, 1986 and the connected petition under Article 32 of the Constitution raise common questions and therefore they are disposed of by this common order. The petitioner by a petition under Article 2-26 filed before the High Court prayed for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus which is also the prayer before us, for the release of her husband Mohalal Jatia, who has been detained by an order of the Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue dated December 13, 1985 under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act. 1974 on being satisfied that it was necessary to detain him with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the augmentation of foreign exchange.

2. Intelligence gathered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Bombay was that one Subhash Gadia, the brother-in-law of the detenu Mohan Jatia, a very rich and prosperous businessman of Bombay, was under-invoicing the imports of yarn from Japan. On the basis of the said information the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Officers of the Customs, Bombay searched his residential premises at A 121, Sea Lord Cuffe Parade, Colaba, Bombay under the Customs Act, 1962 on June 27, 1985, which resulted in seizure of certain documents. As the seized documents not only revealed violation of the provisions of the Customs Act but also indicated certain payments and transactions in violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, the matter was referred to the office of the Enforcement Directorate for purposes of investigation from the angle of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act on October 24, 1985. The aforesaid 8ubhash Gadia was summoned under s. 40 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and his statement was recorded by R.C. Singh, an officer of the Enforcement Directorate Bombay on November 5, 1985. In his statement of even date, Subhash Gadia stated that he went to Japan in 1970 seeking employment with a proprietary concern known as Messrs Greenland Corporation, Tolo Building, Osaka, Japan owned by a Nepali national and was engaged in exporting yarn, fibre, fabrics, chemicals etc. to India and Middle-East countries. Messrs J M. Trading Corporation, 701, Tulsiani Chambers, 212 Nariman Point, Bombay (of which Mohanlal Jatia is a partner) are the sole-selling agents of Messrs Greenland Corporation for Yarn and fibre. He further revealed that Satyanarayan Jatia, the elder brother of Mohanlal Jatia who is the partner of Messrs J.M Trading Corporation, Bombay had been staying in Japan for some 35 years and was the sole representative of Messrs Greenland Corporation in Japan. While explaining the entries in the seized documents from his residence on June 27,1985, Subhash Gadia admitted that the bunch marked S G. 6 containing pages 1 to 94 are written by him in his own writing and that these contained accounts relating to his trade or business including imports and cash transactions and payments. He further confirmed that all the transactions reflected in these documents were his real business transaction dealings and some of which were not reflected in his regular account books. While explaining page 94 of the seized bunch S.G. 4, he stated that this page contained coded account in Indian rupees of his firm Messrs Piyush Corporation and that on the left side of this page credit entries were shown in Indian rupees with two zeros (00) missing and that while writing his account he had deleted two zeros in the credit side as well as debit side (right side) of the page. While decoding the codes he stated that the figure 8582/38 written on the right hand side was actually Rs. 8,58,238 and this amount had been debited against A/S investment. Further, that A/S investment was his private investmen

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IMPORTANT POINTThe expression gazetted officer of enforcement appearing in Section 40 (1) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act must take its colour from the context in which it appears and it means any person appointed to he an officer of enforcement under Section 4 holding a gazetted post.

Cases Referred (10)

IMPORTANT POINT
The expression gazetted officer of enforcement appearing in Section 40 (1) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act must take its colour from the context in which it appears and it means any person appointed to he an officer of enforcement under Section 4 holding a gazetted post.