123. Articles prohibited from important or liable to customs duty. - (1)
When there is good reasons to supposed that an article passing through the post
contains any goods (a) the import of which into Indian by post is prohibited, or (b)
when are liable to duty, it should be forwarded in a cover for in the case of a parcel, in
a bag) marked “Doubtful” addressed to the Postmaster of the office of destination,
with a note explaining the reasons for suspecting the article. Special case should be
exercised in the examination of bulky artic les of the inward foreign letter mail.
EXCEPTION 1. - Any article of the class referred to in (b) detected at the
offices of exchange of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and at the sub-exchange
offices alt Ahmedabad, Bangalore, cochin and Jaipur should be made over to the
nearest Collector of Customs and assessed before it is delivered or transmitted
onwards by post, as the case may be, Articles containing fictitious stamps as defined
in sub-section (4) of Section 263-A of the Indian Penal Code, if detected at those
offices, should similarly be made over to the nearest Collector of Customs for
disposal.
EXCEPTION 2. - inward articles of the foreign mail prepaid at the latter
rate which contain dutiable goods and are furnished on the address side with either a
green label marked “Douane” (Customs) showing the nature, weight and value of he
contents or a green label marked “Douane” accompanied by a separate customs
declaring should be detained for customs examination.
(2) If an article received for delivery (a) is suspected to contain anything
the important of which is prohibited or which is liable to duty or (b) is enclosed in a
cover or bag marked “Doubtful”, the Postmaster should send a notice in writing to the
addressee inviting him to attend either in person or by agent within 48 hours at the
Post Office. He should, under the authority given in Section 24 of the Post Office
Act, open and examine the article in the presence of the addressee or his agent, or in
his absence if he fails to attend within the time specified, reporting the matter to the
Head of the Circle. In sub-offices, the opening and examination of the article should,
if the addressee fails to attend, be done in the presence of two respectable witnesses.
(3) When an article has been opened in the office of delivery, action
should be taken as follows:-
(a) If found to contain anything on which customs duty is payable it
should be sent to the nearest Collector of Customs for disposal.
(b) If found to contain any intoxicating drugs the importation of which is
prohibited, it should be made over with all its contents, to the nearest
Customs Collector for disposal in accordance with the provisions of
the Sea Customs Act, 1878 (VII of 1878), applicable to prohibitions
and restrictions imposed under Section. 19 of he said Act. If found
to contain circulars relating to lotteries, it should be forwarded to the
R.L.O. concerned for return to the sender. If found to contain unset
diamonds, fire-arms, military stores or articles, other than explosives,
included in the term “ammunition” as defined in the Indian Post
Office Rules relating to prohibited category articles, or fictitious as
defined in sub-section (4) of Section 263-A of the Indian Penal Code,
the article should not be delivered to the addressee, but the
Postmaster should at once take steps, in accordance with the
procedure laid down in the Postal Manual, Volume -VI, to forward
the article to the chief post of the state nearest to the office of delivery to be made over to the Customs authorities for any action
that may be considered necessary. In cases where an article is found
to contain explosives, the Postmaster should act on the instructions
contained in Rule 122 (1) (a). If the article is found to contain
anything else, the importation of which is prohibited, it should be
detained and the case reported for the orders of the Head of the
Circle/Region.
(4) When once an article has been opened for the purposes mentioned
above, the Post Office is bound to exercise scrupulous care in checking and repacking
the contents at every stage so as to prevent loss or damage in transit. T he out
covering used for repacking should be of sufficiently substantial material to afford
adequate protection to the contents.
(5) In the event of repacking of he insured foreign inward articles as
prescribed above, a demand from the addressee or the sender to have an open delivery
of such articles should be acceded to.
NOTE.- In sub-offices, articles found to contain anything the importation
of which is prohibited should be sent to the Head Office, except when found to
contain intoxicating drugs in which case they should be made over with all the
contents to the nearest Collector of Customs for the adoption of such further
proceedings as may be deemed proper.
