Arrest under Enforcement :

Provisions for arrest are contained in sections 13 and 18 of Central Excise Act, 1944. These provisions provide for power to arrest, searches and arrests how to be made, disposal of persons arrested, procedure to be followed.

Any Central Excise Officer not below the rank of Inspector of Central Excise with the prior approval of Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner of Central Excise can arrest any person under section 13 whom he has reason to believe that he is liable to punishment under the Central Excise Act. In normal circumstances, prior approval of Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner will be taken before arresting a person.

Disposal of persons arrested: Every person arrested under the Central Excise Act has to be forwarded, without delay:-

(i) to the nearest Central Excise Officer (empowered to send persons so arrested to a Magistrate) or

(ii) to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station if there is no such Central Excise Officer within a reasonable distance [Section 19].

Grant of Bail: If the accused is forwarded to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station, such officer shall, where the offence is non-cognizable, either admit him to bail to appear before the Magistrate having jurisdiction, or in default of bail, forward him in custody to such Magistrate [Section 20].

If the accused is forwarded to the nearest Central Excise Officer, the Central Excise Officer may exercise the same powers and shall be subject to the same provisions as the officer in-charge of a police station may exercise and is subject to under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, when investigating a cognizable case.

In case there is sufficient evidence or reasonable ground of suspicion against the accused in respect of a non-cognizable offence, the Central Excise Officer shall either admit him to bail to appear before the Magistrate having jurisdiction, or in default of bail, forward him in custody to such Magistrate. Otherwise, he shall release the accused person on his executing a bond, with or without sureties and may direct to appear before Jurisdictional Magist rate [Section 21].

Thus, as seen from above, under Central Excise Act, 1944, bail can be granted only in respect of non-cognizable offences and cognizable offences are non-bailable [Refer page 8.24 for cognizable, non-cognizable, bailable and non-bailable offences under Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973].

The procedure for granting the bail in case of non-cognizable offences has been explained with the help of flow diagram in the next page.