Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974

  [52 of 1974]

An Act to provide for preventive detention in certain cases for the purposes of conservation and augmentation of Foreign Exchange and prevention of smuggling activities and for matters connected therewith.

Whereas violations of foreign exchange regulations and smuggling activities are having an increasingly deleterious effect on the national economy and thereby a serious adverse effect on the security of the State;

And whereas having regard to the persons by whom and the manner in which such activities or violations are organised and carried on, and having regard to the fact that in certain areas which are highly vulnerable to smuggling, smuggling activities of a considerable magnitude are clandestinely organised and carried on, it is necessary for the effective prevention of such activities and violations to provide for detention of persons concerned in any manner therewith;

  BE IT ENACTED BY PARLIAMENT IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA AS FOLLOWS :—

  Short title, extent and commencement.

1.     (1) This Act may be called the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) It shall come into force on such date (being a date not later than the twentieth day of December, 1974), as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

Definitions.

2.     In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

   (a)   “appropriate Government” means, as respects a detention order made by the Central Government or by an officer of the Central Government or a person detained under such order, the Central Government, and as respects a detention order made by a State Government or by an officer of a State Government or a person detained under such order, the State Government;

   (b)   “detention order” means an order made under section 3;

   (c)   “foreigner” has the same meaning as in the Foreigners Act, 1946 (31 of 1946);

   (d)   “Indian customs waters” has the same meaning as in clause (28) of section 2 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962);

   (e)   “smuggling” has the same meaning as in clause (39) of section 2 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), and all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

    (f)   “State Government” in relation to a Union Territory, means the administrator thereof;

   (g)   any reference in this Act to a law which is not in force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall, in relation to that State, be construed as a reference to the corresponding law, if any, in force in that State.

Power to make orders detaining certain persons.

3.     (1) The Central Government or the State Government or any officer of the Central Government, not below the rank of a Joint Secretary to that Government, specially empowered for the purposes of this section by that Government, or any officer of a State Government, not below the rank of a Secretary to that Government, specially empowered for the purposes of this section by that Government, may, if satisfied, with respect to any person (including a foreigner), that, with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the conservation or augmentation of foreign exchange or with a view to preventing him from—

    (i)   smuggling goods, or

   (ii)   abetting the smuggling of goods, or

(iii)   engaging in transporting or concealing or keeping smuggled goods, or

  (iv)   dealing in smuggled goods otherwise than by engaging in transporting or concealing or keeping smuggled goods, or

   (v)   harbouring persons engaged in smuggling goods or in abetting the smuggling of goods,

it is necessary so to do, make an order directing that such person be detained:

¹[Provided that no order of detention shall be made on any of the grounds specified in this sub-section on which an order of detention may be made under section 3 of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988 or under section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Ordinance, 1988 (J. & K. Ordinance 1 of 1988).]

(2) When any order of detention is made by a State Government or by an officer empowered by a State Government, the State Government shall, within ten days, forward to the Central Government a report in respect of the order.

(3) For the purposes of clause (5) of article 22 of the Constitution, the communication to a person detained in pursuance of a detention order of the grounds on which the order has been made shall be made as soon as may be after the detention, but ordinarily not later than five days, and in exceptional circumstances and for reasons to be recorded in writing, not later than fifteen days, from the date of detention.

Execution of detention orders.

4.     A detention order may be executed at any place in India in the manner provided for the execution of warrants of arrest under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).

Power to regulate place and conditions of detention.

5.     Every person in respect of whom a detention order has been made shall be liable—

   (a)   to be detained in such place and under such conditions including conditions as to maintenance, interviews or communication with others, discipline and punishment for breaches of discipline, as the appropriate Government may, by general or special order, specify; and

   (b)   to be removed from one place of detention to another place of detention, whether within the same State or in another State by order of the appropriate Government:

Provided that no order shall be made by a State Government under clause (b) for the removal of a person from one State to another State except with the consent of the Government of that other State.

²[Grounds of detention severable.

5A.    Where a person has been detained in pursuance of an order of detention under sub-section (1) of section 3 which has been made on two or more grounds, such order of detention shall be deemed to have been made separately on each of such grounds and accordingly—

   (a)   such order shall not be deemed to be invalid or inoperative merely because one or some of the grounds is or are—  

    (i)   vague,

   (ii)   non-existent,

  (iii)   not relevant,