1. This is a petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution in which the facts may briefly be stated. The petitioner is a tobacco merchant who has his warehouses at Andheri and Jogeshwari within Greater Bombay. He holds Central Excise Licences in forms L5 and L2 for the purpose of storing and selling non-duty paid and duty paid Indian unmanufactured tobacco. It is alleged in the petition that certain officers of the Preventive Branch of the Central Excise, Directorate of Bombay visited the premises and warehouses of the petitioner from 29th June, 1955 to 23rd July, 1955. According to them the tobacco bags had not been stacked in proper order. They carried out the inspection of marks and numbers and variety of each bag. It is stated in paragraph 2 of the petition that the petitioner was away from Bombay on the 29th June, 1955. When these inspections were made Panchnamas were drawn up. The Panchas were called upon to give their opinion regarding the variety and quality of tobacco in these bags. On the basis of the opinion of the Panchas the inspecting officers alleged that certain bags of tobacco were removed from the warehouse without payment of duty and certain bag