The jurisdiction of the Collector of Customs to adjudicate confiscation does not depend on the situs of the goods at the time of adjudication, and the continued existence of the goods within the territorial jurisdiction of the Collector of Customs is not essential for the exercise of his jurisdiction to confiscate the offending goods.

K. VEERASWAMI, C.J.

The appeals arise from a common order of Kailasam, J., dismissing the appellant's petitions for direction to the respondent, the Collector of Central Excise, Madras, to return to them the goods seized from them. On information from the Collector of Customs and Central Excise, West Bengal at Calcutta, certain quantities of Camphor Cassia and cloves consigned by rail and road from Calcutta by Jaychandlal Sethia, or Eastern Supply Agency, Calcutta, as the case may be, in January 1965 were intercepted and seized at Madras by prior officers of the Customs Department, purporting to so act on a reasonable belief that they were contraband, and liable to action under station 110 of the Customs Act, 1962. After protracted correspondence and delay the respondent intimated in April 1965 that as the concerned cases were being transferred to the Collector of Central Excise, West Bengal, Calcutta, further correspondence in respect of them might be addressed to the Superintendent of Customs and Central Excise, Divisional Preventing Unit, Calcutta. The appellants then filed petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution, for direction for return of goods to them on the ground that since the seizure of goods was effected within the territorial jurisdiction of the respondent, he alone had jurisdiction to adjudicate under section 122, and not the Collector of Central Excise, Calcutta and that in any case, the respondent had no power to transfer the cases to Calcutta. Kailasam, J., declined to accept these grounds. In view of this, the writ petition which raises a similar point, has been clubbed with the appeals.

2.The appellants urge :

(1) that only the respondent has jurisdiction to adjudicate under section 122;

(2)that the proper officer in Madras, could have no reasonable belief that the goods were contraband to warrant their seizure, and that if no notice under section 124 was issued within a period of six months from the date of seizure, the goods ought to be returned; and(3)that in any case, having regard to the nature of the goods, they should be handed to the appellants on payment of their value, or sold in the market immediately as otherwise they were likely to be damaged.

Kailasam, J., examined the first ground, and opined that in the circumstances, the Collector of Customs, Calcutta had jurisdiction to confiscate goods or impose a penalty as the offence if any, which would entail confiscation or penalty, appeared to have been committed in Calcutta. It is contended that confiscation proceeding under section 122 is in the nature of a proceeding in rem, and any Collector of Customs can exercise the power of confiscation only within the area for which he is appointed. Even as such, seizure and arrest under Chapter XIII of the Act can be resorted to by proper officers within their jurisdiction. It may be granted, it was so held in Sewpujanrai I. Ltd. v. Collector of Customs, that confiscation of goods under the Customs Act is a proceeding in rem, and a penalty enforced against the goods, the confiscation operating directly upon the status of the property confiscated by transfer of its ownership. But this does not, in our opinion, conclude that jurisdiction for adjudication depends necessarily on situs of the goods. Section 3 of the Customs Act, 1962, mentions that classes of officers of Customs who are to be appointed for purposes of the Act. By sub-section (1) of section 4, the Central Government is vested with the authority to make appointment of such persons as it thinks fit to be officers of Customs. By the next sub-section, the Central Government may authorise the Board, Collector of Customs or a Deputy or Assistant Collector of Customs to appoint officers of customs below the rank of Assistant Collector of Customs. Under section 5 (1) an Officer of Customs may exercise the powers and discharge the duties conferred or imposed on him under the Act, but subject to such conditions and limitations as the Board m