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Mar 18, 2011

Assistant Collector of Customs, Bombay and another Vs L R Melwani and another AIR 1970 SC 962

Hon’ble Supreme Court of India observed as under
"the question is whether that prosecution is barred under Article 20 (2) of the Constitution which says that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. This Article has no direct bearing on the question at issue. Evidently those accused persons want to spell out from this Article the rule of autre fois acquit embodied in S.403, Criminal Procedure Code. Assuming we can do that, still it is not possible to hold that a proceeding before the Collector of Customs is a prosecution for an offence. In order to get the benefit of Section 403, Criminal Procedure Code or Article 20 (2), it is necessary for an accused person to establish that he had been tried by a "Court of competent jurisdiction" for an offence and he is convicted or acquitted of that offence and the said conviction or acquittal is in force....."

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