The Delhi High Court has held that the customs department cannot abuse their powers by issuing non-bailable warrants for missing a single investigation date.
The bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna has observed that merely because the petitioner did not join investigations on one date, non-bailable warrants (NBW) got issued which is clearly reflective of the abuse of the powers by the Customs Officer.
The bench stated that it cannot be overlooked that NBW, once issued, has the serious implication of an individual being arrested and consequent deprivation of his personal liberty. The Apex Court has time and again emphasized and reiterated that coercive procedures must not be resorted to unless inevitable. The course of issuance of NBW and consequent filing of the Complaint was not justified.
The Petitioner, Manish Kumar Jain, Partner of M/s Mala Petrochemicals & Polymers was engaged in import and trading of different chemicals including PVC. He filed a Bill of Entry for clearance of Ammonium Sulphate at the assessable value of Rs.67,50,658.20 and paid the requisite customs duty.
However, the consignment was wrongly sent by the Supplier and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) issued an alert against him. The search was conducted at his godown and the goods were seized for not providing the import documents in respect of them.
During the investigations, the Petitioner appeared before DRI on 30.03.2017, 31.03.2017 and 10.04.2017 and his statements were recorded under Section 108 Customs Act, 1962.
In the meanwhile, summons was issued to the Petitioner. The summons were not served in accordance with Section 153 Customs Act, but was affixed at the door of his house, since he was out of town. He came to know about the same when he later returned back.
On account of non-compliance of this single summon, first Criminal Complaint C.C.No.12477/2017 was filed by the DRI before the Ld. CMM under Section 174 IPC in which Summons were issued on 05.08.2017 . On coming to know about the pending proceedings, counsel for the petitioner moved an Exemption Application which was allowed subject to cost of Rs.10,000/-. However, on the next date of hearing i.e. 04.09.2017 Bailable Warrants were issued against him.
The petitioner contended that the Summons were issued to the Petitioner as well as the Surety, even though no surety has been furnished by the Petitioner till then. This shows that there was non-application of mind while passing the Order dated 20.11.2017.
The petitioner contended that the DRI has misused the provision of Section 108 Customs Act to issue summons to the Petitioner, whenever any Order was made by Apex Court or Division Bench of the Court. For the non-compliance of summons on different occasions, two Complaints have been filed against the Petitioner which shows that DRI wants to harass the Petitioner rather than to secure his presence. The Petitioner had appeared before the DRI from March to May, 2017 on different dates and has been coerced to make payments.
The court held that this is a blatant example where the Customs Officer has abused their powers to somehow corner the Petitioner who otherwise, has throughout been cooperating and joining the investigations. On this ground as well, the Petition is liable to be quashed.
The court quashed the Criminal Complaint No.26460/2017 (now re-numbered as 6903/2018) under Section 174 IPC and all the proceedings undertaken therein also stand quashed. However, this would not limit the right of the Respondent to take appropriate action under the Customs Act.
Case Details
Case Title: Manish Kumar Jain Versus State
Case No.: CRL.M.C.984/2018
Date: 14/07/2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Priyadarshi Manish
Counsel For Respondent: Shoaib Haider
