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within the meaning of those words, the said Chief Customs Authority only could enforce the said order and not the Collector of Customs.
To appreciate the rival contentions and to provide a satisfactory solution to the problem presented it is necessary to read the relevant provisions of the Act, not only to understand the scheme of the Act but also to construe the provisions of s. 193 thereof in the light of the scheme disclosed by the said provisions. It is one of the well established rules of construction that "if the words of a statute are in themselves precise and unambiguous no more is necessary than to expound those words in their natural and ordinary sense, the words themselves in such case best declaring the intention of the legislature". It is equally well settled principle of construction that "Where alternative constructions are equally open that alternative is to be chosen which will be consistent with the smooth working of the system which the statute purports to be regulating; and that alternative is to be rejected which will introduce uncertainty, friction or confusion into the working of the system." With this background and having regard to the aforesaid two principles of construction, let us at the outset scrutinize the scheme of the Act. Section 3 defines "Chief Customs-authority" to mean the Central Board of Revenue. "Customs-collector" is defined to include "every officer of Customs for the time being in separate charge of a custom-house, or duly authorized to perform all, or any special, duties of an officer so in charge." Section 19 confers a power on the Central Government to prohibit or restrict the importation or exportation of goods by sea or by land. Section 167 prescribes the various punishments for offences under the Act. Section 167(8) says that if any goods, the importation or exportation of which is for the time being prohibited or restricted by or under Chapter IV of the Act, be imported into, or exported from India contrary to such prohibition or restriction, such goods shall be liable to confiscation; and any person concerned in any such offence shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding three times the value of the goods, or not exceeding one thousand rupees. Under s. 167(37)(c), if it be found, when any goods are entered at, or brought to be passed through, a custom-house, either for importation or exportation, that the contents of such packages have been misstated in regard to sort, quality, quantity or value, such packages shall be liable to confiscation and every person concerned in any such offence shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding one thousand rupees. Section 182, empowers the Collector of Customs to adjudicate whether anything is liable to confiscation, increased rate of duty or any person is liable to a penalty. Section 183 enjoins on such authority to give the owner of goods so confiscated an option to pay in lieu of confiscation such fine as it thinks fit. Section 188 gives a right of appeal from such an order to the Chief Customs Authority who is empowered to pass such order as he thinks fit, confirming, altering or annulling the decision or order appealed against; but under the proviso to that section the said appellate authority cannot make an order subjecting any person to any greater confiscation, penalty or rate of duty than has been adjudged against him in the original decision or order. Every order passed under this section is final subject to the power of revision conferred by s. 191 on the Central Government. Section 190 confers a power on the Chief Customs Authority to remit penalty, increased rate or confiscation in whole or in part; it also enables the said authority, with the consent of the owner of the goods ordered to be confiscated to commute the order of con- fiscation to a penalty not exceeding the value of such goods. Section 190A gives a power of revision to the Chief Customs Authority against an order of any officer of Customs passed under the Act and enables it to pass such order thereon as it thinks fit. Then comes the crucial s. 193. As the argument turns upon the provisions of this section, it would be convenient to read the entire section at this stage.

With this background let us look at the relevant provisions of s. 193 of the Act. Under the said section only an officer of Customs, who has adjudged a penalty or increased rate of duty, can realize the said penalty or rate through the machinery of a Magistrate. The question is whether the Chief Customs Authority is "an officer of Customs" who has adjudged a penalty or rate, as the case may be, within the meaning of s. 193 of the Act. Section 182 of the Act enumerates the different officers of Customs who are empowered to adjudge a question of penalty, but the Chief Customs Authority is not included in that list. Indeed, in s. 182(c) the Chief Customs Authority is empowered to nominate the subordinate officers of Customs to adjudge questions within certain pecuniary limits. That apart, s. 3(a) of the Act defines "Chief Customs-authority" to mean the Central Board of Revenue. The Central Board of Revenue is a statutory authority and, though it can only function through officers appointed to the said Board, it is inappropriate to call it an officer of Customs. In this situation, when under the provisions of the Act there is no scope for realization of any penalty imposed for the first time by the Chief Customs Authority, it would be more in accord. with the scheme of the Act to construe the words "an officer of Customs" as an officer of the Customs who is authorized to adjudicate in the first instance on the question of confiscation, increased rate of duty or penalty under s. 182 of the Act. This construction, it is said, would lead to ail anomaly of the statute conferring a power on the Chief Customs Authority to from it a procedure to enforce its collection. As we have pointed out, such an anomaly cannot arise under the provisions of the Act, for there is no section which empowers the Chief Customs Authority to impose a penalty higher than that imposed by the Customs Officer. Assuming that the Chief Customs Authority is an Officer of Customs within the meaning of s. 193 of the Act, it had to initiate proceedings under the said section; but in this case the Collector of Customs notified in writing to the Magistrate for recovering the said penalty. Learned counsel for the appellant contends that an order made by the Chief Customs Authority imposing a penalty shall be deemed in law to be an order made by the original authority, that is, the Collector of Customs and, therefore, the said order for the purpose of enforcement shall be treated as the order of the Collector of Customs. It is said that this legal position would flow from the proposition that an appeal is a continuation of a suit. The said proposition is unexceptionable: see Rangaswamy v. Alagayammal (1), Kristnamachariar v. Mangammal (2), Lachmeshwar Prasad Shukul v. Keshwar Lal Chaudhuri (3). But neither the said decisions nor the principles laid down therein can have any bearing on the question whether an order made for the first time by an appellate authority could in law be deemed to be one made by the original authority. In the absence of any statutory fiction giving rise to that result, it is not permissible to treat the order made by one authority as that made by another authority. If so, it follows that the order of the Chief Customs Authority imposing a penalty for the' first time cannot be treated to be an order of the Collector of Customs within the meaning of s. 193 of the Act.