Magistrate cannot release the vehicle during confiscation proceedings under U.P. Excise Act

Akhilesh Kumar Vs State of U.P. (Allahabad High Court)

Question before the court is whether during confiscation proceedings under section 72 of U.P. Excise Act, the Magistrate is empowered to release the vehicle. In case of (Nand vs. State of U.P.) 1997 (1) AWC 41 and (Rajeev Kumar Singh vs. State of U.P. and ors) 2017 (5) ADJ 351, the learned Single Judge of this Court held that the Magistrate has jurisdiction while in the case of Ved Prakash vs. State of U.P. 1982 AWC 167 another Bench of this Court held that the Magistrate has no jurisdiction in the matter. The matter again came before another learned Single Judge of this Court and taking notice of the conflicting views the learned Single Judge referred the matter to Division Bench. The Division Bench in (Virendra Gupta vs. State of U.P). 2019 (6) ADJ 432 (DB), on the aforesaid reference formulated the following question:

“Whether pending confiscation proceedings under Section 72 of the U.P. Excise Act before the Collector, the Magistrate/ Court has jurisdiction to release any property subject-matter of confiscation proceedings in exercise of powers under Sections 451, 452 or 457 of the Code of Criminal Procedure?”

The Division Bench interpreting the various provisions of Cr.P.C. and U.P. Excise Act and the law laid down by the Apex Court in (Sunderbhai Ambalal Desai vs. State of Gujarat), 2002 (10) SCC 283 and (State GNCJ of Delhi) vs. Narendra (2014) 13 SCC 100 answered the aforesaid question in para no.20 of the judgment which is reproduced as below:

Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.