Scope of the provisions of the Act.

On receipt of certain information the Superintendent of Central Excise, Vellore, searched the shop and residence of Messrs. Vanechand & Sons on 9th November, 1957. He seized from the shop 121 7/32 tolas of gold. This included 2 bars of 10 tolas each with foreign marks. The residence of the proprietor of the firms was next searched and from there 5 bars of 10 tolas each with foreign marks were recovered. According to the accounts maintained by Vanechand & Sons the stock of gold on hand should have been only 98 tolas. A perusal of the private accounts maintained by this firm showed that it had received gold from the petitioners in these cases in the past and that the receipts of such gold were not accounted for in the regular account-books. On 10th November, 1957, Bijraj, son of Vanechand Bhatwada, who was managing the business stated that the several gold bars bearing foreign marks and weighing 70 tolas which had been seized from the shop as well as from the residence were received from the petitioner in W.P. No. no of 1959. He also made a statement relating to the transactions of the firm with the petitioners in W.P. Nos. 109, 88 and 111 of 1959. He added that the gold was smuggled gold. On 30th November, 1957, he gave a further statement in which he admitted that the smuggled gold had been purchased from the petitioners in these four writ petitions.

Govindaraj, a clerk of Messrs. Vanechand & Sons, made statements on 18th November, 1957 and 23rd November, 1957, in which he stated that he used to go to Bangalore and purchase gold on behalf of the firm. He further stated that he had acquired 7 bars of gold from the petitioner in W.P. No. no of 1959 on 6th November, 1957. Sampathraj, the second son of Vanechand, gave a statement on 10th November, 1957, in which he explained that his brother Bijraj was in charge of bullion transactions and that the gold bars seized from the house would have been kept there by his father and that the clerk Govindraj was entrusted with the duty of purchasing gold. He added that some 4 days previously Govindaraj had been to Bangalore to purchase gold. Vanechand gave a statement on 14th November, 1957, in which he admitted that the gold with foreign marks had been brought from Bowrilal of Bangalore, the petitioner in W.P. No. 110 of 1959.

The information obtained from these individuals was passed on to the Departmental Officers in Bangalore and they recorded statements from each of the four petitioners. All of them denied that they had any connection with Vanechand & Sons. Three of them denied even the knowledge of the existence of the firm of Vanechand & Sons at Vellore. They also denied that they had any telephonic contacts with that firm. The partner of the firm Bowrilal (W.P. No. 110 of 1959) however, admitted that he knew Vanechand in connection with some matrimonial proposals.

The Collector of Central Excise, Madras, gave a personal hearing to the counsel of the petitioners and finally recorded this view:

"As regards the four Bangalore parties I consider that these four parties at Bangalore were the persons concerned in the smuggling of gold which they had been passing on to the firm at Vellore."

In this view he imposed a penalty of Rs. 6,000 on the petitioner in W.P. No. 88 of 1959, of Rs. 25,000 on the petitioner in W.P. No. 109 of 1959, of Rs. 25,000 on the petitioner in W.P. No. no of 1959, and of Rs. 12,000 on the petitioner in W.P. No. 111 of 1959. These individuals have, therefore, come to this Court for the issue of an appropriate writ to quash the order of the Collector imposing these penalties on them.

Item 8 of the Schedule to section 167 of the Sea Customs Act so far as it is here material runs as follows:

" If any goods, the importation or exportation of which is for the time being prohibited or restricted ............be imported into or exported from the States contrary to such prohibition or restriction, or —

If any attempt be made so to import or export any such goods........such