Mumbai High Court stays criminal proceedings against excise officers
Often we hear complaints about cases booked by excise officers. Have you heard of a case booked by the assessee against officers?
The excisemen raided a factory in Belapur and found evasion of more than a Crore of rupees. The assessee paid up – by post dated cheques – which promptly bounced. Department naturally threatened coercive action and the assessee promptly filed a criminal complaint of threat and assault against an Assistant Commissioner and three other officers. A magistrate’s court started proceedings. Fortunately the Mumbai High Court saw through the trick and stayed the proceedings. This is a risk the officers run against unscrupulous assessees.
I have had a similar experience. An assessee whom we summoned for inquiry and whom we fed well and treated with all respect suspected that we were going to arrest him. At 6 pm, we asked him to go away but gave him another summons to appear the next day. He walked into a hospital, got a certificate that he had injuries, then went to a Human Rights Court and filed complaint against an Assistant Commissioner and four other officers. All these officers were known in the department as too soft and friendly to assessees and not capable to be effective preventive officers. For about a year we had to attend the court and stand in the box as accused. Incidentally we had a former Chairman of the Bar Council of India to defend us – for free. We won on a very technical ground, but the fact remains that the officers run the risk of such attacks and the sad part of the story is – these attacks come from the real criminals. A good genuine assessee never resorts to such tactics. When a smuggler or evader is investigated, the easiest thing for him is to file such a complaint, as this will divert the attention of the officers and they will be rattled and busy more in defending themselves than investigating the case. Interestingly, the law is, when someone accuses these officers of assault, the officers become the accused and the State will not come to their aid – rather the State will be with the Complainant. The Public Prosecutor will appear against the officers.
While assault and third degree methods by officers should be condemned with all force, there should be a mechanism to protect sincere officers doing an honest job against anti social elements. It is tragic if they are exposed to criminal proceedings.