Maa Saraswati Traders vs The Union Of India & Ors on 28 February, 2012
19. From the aforesaid well settled principles of law,
it is quite apparent that so far the point of time at which
reasonable belief should exist is concerned, whenever the goods
are seized, the officer seizing the goods must at the time of
seizure have a reasonable belief that the goods he was seizing
were smuggled goods and any subsequent acquisition of
knowledge of such belief would be of no avail. So far the
allegation that betel nuts in question were of foreign origin is
concerned, a Division Bench of this court in case of
Commissioner, Custom Department, Government of India,
Patna v. Dwarika Prasad Agarwal & Ors., reported in
2009(2) PLJR 858 had specifically held that it was not in
dispute that betel nut was non-notified item and, as such, the
onus to prove that the same was of foreign origin lay on Custom
authority.