SC upholds law on confiscation of drug traffickers' properties

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has upheld a law that allows confiscation of properties owned by drug traffickers even if these are registered in their relatives' names.
Dismissing the appeal filed by the wife of an alleged notorious drug trader Iqbal Mohammed Memom, a bench of Justices S B Sinha and V S Sirpurkar said the law was rightly enacted by Parliament to tackle the menace of properties acquired by such persons and there was no unconstitutionality about it.
"The nexus of huge amount of money generated by drug trafficking and the purpose for which they are spent is well known.
"Necessity was felt for introduction of strict measures so that money earned from drug trafficking by the person concerned may not continue to be invested by purchasing movable or immovable properties not only in his own name but also in the name of his near relatives," the apex court observed.
The court said there was no merit in the appeal filed by Heena Kausar, wife of Memom.
Kausar had appealed in the apex court after the Appellate Tribunal, Customs and the Bombay High Court dismissed her appeal challenging the confiscation of properties in her name.
She had claimed that Section 68C of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, which facilitated the confiscation of the properties, was unconstitutional.
The authorities had confiscated two flats and a stilt parking area in Milton Apartments, Juhu Road, Mumbai as the couple remained incognito since 1991 after the Government served a detention order on Memom.
The Memoms challenged the confiscation before the Appellate Tribunal, Customs, which dismissed their appeal and the Bombay High Court also refused to interfere with the order following which Kausar filed an appeal in the apex court.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
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