Legal principle

In arrests under special Acts such as the Customs Act, courts may interfere only where there is manifest arbitrariness or gross violation of the statutory safeguards, and not to test the sufficiency of the material forming the officer's reason to believe.

Court decision

The extract records the Court's concluding principles: judicial review over arrests under special Acts (including the Customs Act) must be extremely cautious, confined to checking whether the officer was authorized, whether the 'reason to believe' was based on material in the officer's possession, and whether grounds of arrest were informed; sufficiency or correctness of the material is not reviewable, and judicial review lies only where there is manifest arbitrariness or gross violation/non-compliance of statutory safeguards. The extract does not disclose the final operative order or in whose favour the petitions were disposed.

Key provisions

• Section 104(1), Customs Act, 1962 — Power to arrest
• Section 19(1), Customs Act, 1962 — Determination of duty where goods consist of articles liable to different rates of duty
• Section 41, Customs Act, 1962 — Delivery of departure manifest or export manifest or export report
• Section 32, The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 — Cognizance of offences.