Jurisprudentiol- Recent SC Judgements

By Vijay Kumar

NDPS - Appellant picked up from his house and charged with carrying poppy - convicted under NDPS - more stringent the punishment, the more heavy is the burden upon the prosecution to prove the offence - Supreme Court:

120 kgs of poppy husk seized from a vehicle and appellant held guilty and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for ten years and a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/-. In the absence of independent evidence connecting the appellant with the vehicle, mere compliance with Section 50 of the NDPS Act by itself would not be sufficient to establish the guilt of the appellant. It is a well-settled principle of the criminal jurisprudence that more stringent the punishment, the more heavy is the burden upon the prosecution to prove the offence. When the independent witnesses PW1 and DW2 have not supported the prosecution case and the recovery of the contraband has not been satisfactorily proved, the conviction of the appellant under Section 15 of the NDPS Act cannot be sustained.

The conviction of the appellant and the sentence imposed on him is set aside and this appeal is allowed. Fine amount of Rs.1,00,000/-, if paid, is ordered to be refunded to the appellant.

Please see Makhan Singh Vs State of Haryana- 2015-TIOL-84-SC-NDPS

CE - Exemption to goods supplied to Universities, National Laboratories etc. - Matter remanded to consider evidence whether the goods were used for research purposes:

The respondents in these appeals have been supplying power transformers to certain institutes which are IITs, Universities, National Laboratories, etc. The question is as to whether these equipments supplied by the respondents are covered by Notification No.10/97 CE dated 1.3.1997. The said Notification exempts the supply of equipments to certain types of institutions from payment of Central Excise in case the conditions mentioned in the Notification are fulfilled. The Counsel appearing for the respondents, intends to rely upon some material, which she submits has been downloaded from the web sites of the IITs, Universities, etc. to whom the goods were supplied, in order to demonstrate that the goods supplied were meant for research. Since this material was not produced before the commissioner, he did not have any occasion to verify the same or to consider the effect thereof. Matter remanded to adjudicating authority to consider the issue afresh after giving opportunity to the respondents to place the material before him.

Please see Commissioner of Central Excise Vs Andrew Yule and Co Ltd - 2015-TIOL-83-SC-CX