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Arresting Powers of Custom and GST Officials
March 8 , 2025
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- The Supreme Court upheld the rights of authorised officers to make arrests under the Customs Act 1962 and the CGST Act 2017.
- According to the SC, while officers under the Customs Act and CGST Act are not police officers, they “enjoy analogous powers such as the power to investigate, arrest, seize, interrogate, etc”.
- But the powers of arrest, search and seizure exercised by police, and must be bound by the same restrictions that the police officials face under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC).
- Under Section 104(4) of the Customs Act, some of the select offences have been classified as ‘cognizable.
- So, a customs officer (like the police) may arrest someone without a warrant if they are suspected of one of these offences.
- Section 104(5) says all other offences under the Customs Act will be considered non-cognizable, and a Magistrate must sign a warrant for arrest and investigation to take place.
- Similarly the Section 132 of the CGST Act classifies certain offences as cognizable and non-cognizable, and provides punishments based on the gravity of the crime.
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