Page 164 - ELT_15th July 2020_Vol 373_Part 2

146 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 373

REPRESENTED BY : S/Shri Ahin Choudhuri, Partha Sarathi Sengupta,
Senior Advocates, Sanjay Basu, Arijit Chakraborti,
Anil Kumar Nag, Samik Chakraborty and Piyush
Agrawal, Advocates, for the Appellant.
S/Shri Aman Lekhi, ASG, Kishore Datta, Advocate
General, Aman Malik, Ujjawal Sinha, Amitabrata
Ray, K.K. Maity, Bhaskar Prasad Banerjee,
Abhratosh Majumber, Avra Mazumder and Partha
Chakraborty, Advocates, for the Respondent.
[Order]. - This is an appeal from an interim order dated 4th April, 2019
passed by a Learned Single Judge of this Court in the writ application (W.P. 7489
(W) of 2019 Rujira Naroola v. Union of India & Ors.) [2020 (373) E.L.T. 42 (Cal.)].
2. The facts of this case are like those in a thrilling novel.
3. The appellant arrived in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International
Airport, Kolkata in the intervening night between 15th March, 2019 and 16th
March, 2019 by a Thai Airways Flight. She is a Thai national and holds an Over-
seas Citizen of India card. She says she “permanently” resides in a premises on
Harish Mukherjee Road in this City.
4. The Custom authorities became suspicious of her and had wanted to
check her baggage.
5. According to them she resented this.
6. Her baggage was checked by the x-ray machine.
7. According to Mr. Lekhi, the Learned Additional Solicitor General
appearing for the Customs authorities the X-ray report revealed that she was
carrying a significant quantity of gold. No image derived from this X-ray scan-
ning suggesting the presence of gold is produced before us. This allegation is
disputed by the appellant. Thereafter, the version of the Customs authorities is
that, they wanted to open the suitcase, check it and make further search and in-
vestigation. Allegedly, the appellant had an all pervasive influence over the air-
port police. She called them in. They obliged and facilitated the escape of the ap-
pellant from the airport.
8. She managed to leave the airport and reach her home safely.
9. On 16th March, 2019 the appellant lodged a complaint with the In-
spector-in-charge of the Airport Police Station. She said that she was harassed,
intimated and threatened by the Customs authorities.
10. It appears from the records that after a week on 22nd March, 2019
the Customs authorities submitted a written complaint to the Air Port police.
11. The subject matter of the complaint was, as submitted by the
Learned Solicitor General is the obstruction of the Customs Officers by the appel-
lant, aided and abetted by the police.
12. The next day on 23rd March, 2019, the Assistant Commissioner of
police wrote to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate for permission to inves-
tigate the matter and submit a police report. The Learned Judge on that day itself
granted the permission.
13. Then came into the impugned summons dated 26th March, 2019 is-
sued by the Customs authorities in exercise of their powers under Section 108 of
the Customs Act, 1962. It was issued by a Joint Commissioner of Customs.
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