VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

DECISION - 147
393
Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance 1944, the respondent is entitled
to show cause why the ad interim attachment levied should not be
made absolute, that does not entitle him to plead and prove that the
property attached is not ill-gotten property and he has not committed
any Scheduled offence, in the attachment proceedings. The
investigation of the offence charged to the respondent has been
entrusted to the Court of Special Judge constituted under the Criminal
Law Amendment Act 1952 who has also been empowered to decide
objections to the ad interim attachment. Therefore staying of further
inquiry into the attachment proceeding under the Ordinance does
not amount to short circuiting of the procedure prescribed by law.
(147)
Principles of natural justice — not to stretch too far
Rules of natural justice must not be stretched too
far. Only too often the people who have done wrong
seek to invoke the rules of natural justice so as to
avoid the consequences.
R vs. Secretary of State for Home Department,
(1973) 3 All ER 796
The Court of Appeal, Civil Division (England), in a case of
immigration, observed that on the evidence in the case, it thought the
immigration officer acted with scrupulous fairness and thoroughness.
When his suspicions were aroused, he made them known to the
applicant. He gave him every opportunity of dispelling them. If the
applicant had been lawfully settled in England, the enquiries which the
immigration officer made would go to help him—to corroborate his
story—rather than hinder him. There was no need at all for the
immigration officer to put them to him when they proved adverse. Lord
Denning observed: “ The rules of natural justice must not be stretched
too far. Only too often the people who have done wrong seek to invoke
‘the rules of natural justice’ so as to avoid the consequences.” (See
H.C. Sarin vs. Union of India, AIR 1976 SC 1686)