Chapter VIII DETECTION, INVESTIGATION AND TRIAL OF OFFENCES

Any of the following officers namely:

1. (a) The Excise Commissioner; or
2. (b) The Collector; or
3. (c) Any block level officer and above of the District authorized by the Collector; or
4. (d) Any Excise Officer; or
5. (e) Any police officer not below the rank of Sub Inspector; or
6. (f) Any other officer or agency or force, armed or otherwise, authorized for this purpose by the State Government; may, without warrant but subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by the State Government, enter , inspect ,search any place at any time, day or night, and seize any document, sample, equipment, conveyance, animal, commodity, intoxicant, material, raw material or any other item of concern.

1. (1) Any of the officers mentioned in Section-73 may arrest or detain, without warrant, any person and/or any vehicle, animal, means of conveyance, at any time of day and night, found committing an offence or attempting to commit an offence punishable under any provision of this Act.
2. (2) All arrests made under this section must be reported to the Collector forthwith.

1. (1) Any of the Officers mentioned in Section-73 may ask any person to undergo breath analysis tests and/or such medical tests as he may deem fit.
2. (2) The person so asked, is duty bound to submit himself to such medical tests or breath analysis tests. Should he fails to do so, it shall be presumed that he has committed an offence under Section 37 of the Act and shall be prosecuted accordingly.
3. (3) The reports of such tests shall be admissible as evidences under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

1. (1) All offences under this Act shall be Cognizable and Non-Bailable and provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974) shall apply.
2. (2) Notwithstanding anything mentioned in subsection (1) above, nothing in Section-360 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), Section-438 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974) and Probation of Offenders Act 1958 (20 of 1958) shall apply in relation to any case involving the arrest of any person on an accusation of having committed an offence under this Act.

The Excise Commissioner or Collector or any excise

officer or police officer not below the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector, may by order, require any person or any establishment deemed reasonably connected with any unlawful handling of any liquor or intoxicant to furnish to him such information as may be specified in the order.

1. (1) Any excise officer may investigate any offence punishable under this Act.
2. (2) Anypolice officer, not below the rank of sub inspector may investigate any offence punishable under this Act.

1. (1) All excise officers mentioned in Section-73 shall exercise the powers of the officer-in-charge of a police station in his area of jurisdiction for thepurposes of this Act.
2. (2) The area to which an excise officer is empowered under Section-73 shall be deemed to be a police station.

Any person arrested under this Act shall be produced

before the Court within twenty four hours.

Every officer-in-charge

of a police station shall take charge of and keep in safe custody, pending the order of the Court or the Collector, all articles seized or persons arrested under this Act which may be delivered to him and shall allow the excise officer who may accompany such articles, to affix his seal to such articles and to take samples of and from them.

Every Police Officer upon making any

arrest, search or seizure shall submit a report to the Collector and to the excise officers empowered under Section-73 within twenty four hours.

Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection(1) of section-76

of this Act, all offences punishable under this Act shall be tried by the Court of Sessions.

Criminal Procedure 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), the State Government may, if consider necessary in the public interest, for the purposes of trial of all or any of the offences under this Act, either appoint or designate in every District of the State, Special Court(s) in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court.

1. (2) The Special Court shall be presided over by a Special Judge who is or has been a Sessions Judge or an Additional Sessions Judge or an Assistant Sessions Judge under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 ( Act 2 of 1974).
2. (3) The trial under this Act of any offence by the Special Court shall have precedence over the trial of any other case against the accused in any other Court (not being a Special Court) and shall be concluded in preference to the trial of such other case.
3. (4) All trials and proceedings under the Bihar Excise Act 1915( Bihar& Orissa Act II of 1915), pending in any other Court, before the commencement of this Act, shall stand transferred to the Special Courts.

1. (1) A Special Judge may take cognizance of offences without the accused being committed to him for trial and, in trying the accused persons, shall follow the procedure prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), for the trial of warrant cases by the Magistrates;
2. (2) Save as provided in sub-section (1), the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), shall, so far as they are not inconsistent with this Act, apply to the proceedings before a special Judge; and for purposes of the said provisions, the Court of the special Judge shall be deemed to be a Court of Session and the person conducting a prosecution before a special Judge shall be deemed to be a public prosecutor; (3)In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the provisions contained in subsection (2), the provisions of sections-326 and 475 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), shall, so far as may be, apply to the proceedings before a special Judge and for the purposes of the said provisions, the special Judge shall be deemed to be a Magistrate;
3. (4) A special Judge may pass upon any person convicted by him any sentence authorized by law for the punishment of the offence of which such person is convicted;
4. (5) A special Judge, while trying an offence punishable under this Act, shall exercise all the powers and functions exercisable by a District Judge under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944 (Ord.38 of 1944);
5. (6) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), the special Judge shall, as far as practicable, hold the trial of an offence on day-to-day basis.

Where, after taking cognizance of any

offence in this Act, a Special Court is of the opinion that the offence is not triable by it, it shall, notwithstanding that it has no jurisdiction to try such offence, transfer the case for the trial of such offence to any court having jurisdiction under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ( Act 2 of 1974) and the Court to which the case is transferred may proceed with the trial of the offence as if it had taken cognizance of the offence.

Where at

any time during the trial of an offence under this Act, alleged to have been committed by any person, not being the manufacturer, distributor or dealer of any intoxicant or owner or occupier of any premises involved in theoffence, the Special Court is satisfied, on the evidence adduced before it, that such manufacturer, distributor , dealer, owner or occupier is also concerned with that offence then the court may notwithstanding anything contained in the sub-section (3) of section-319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), proceed against him under any section of this chapter.

For every Special Court set up under Section

84 of the Act, the State Government, as per the procedure laid down under Section-24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), may appoint a person to be the Special Public Prosecutor and more than one person to be Additional Public Prosecutors.

Any person aggrieved by any order of the Special Court may, within forty five

days from the date of order, prefer an appeal in the High Court.

1. (1) Save as otherwise expressly providedin this Act, the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974) relating to arrests, detention, searches, summons, warrants of arrest, search warrants, and the production of persons arrested or articles seized shall apply so far as may be, to arrests, detentions and searches made, summons and warrants issued, and the production of persons arrested or articles seized under this Act.
2. (2) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), shall in their application to any proceeding in relation to an offence punishable under this Act have effect as if-
   • (a) in sub-section (1) of Section-243, for the words "The accused shall then be called upon", the words "The accused shall then be required to give in writing at once or within such time as the Court may allow, a list of the persons (if any) whom he proposes to examine as his witnesses and of the documents (if any) on which he proposes to rely and he shall then be called upon" had been substituted;
   • (b) in sub-section (2) of section-309, after the third proviso, the following proviso had been inserted, namely :"Provided also that the proceeding shall not be adjourned or postponed merely on the ground that an application under section-397 has been made by a party to the proceeding."
   • (c) after sub-section (2) of section-317, the following sub-section had been inserted, namely :"(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), the Judge may, if he thinks fit and for reasons to be recorded by him, proceed with enquiry or trial in the absence of the accused or his pleader and record the evidence of any witness, subject to the right of the accused to recall the witness for crossexamination."
   • (d) in sub-section (1) of section-397, before the Explanation, the following proviso had been inserted, namely :"Provided that where the powers under this section are exercised by a court on an application made by a party to such proceedings, the court shall not ordinarily call for the record of the proceedings,-
   • (a) without giving the other party an opportunity of showing cause why the record should not be called for; or
   • (b) if it is satisfied that an examination of the record of the proceedings may be made from the certified copies."

1. (1) As soon as a violation of any of the provisions of the Act is detected, the excise officer or the police officer, of the rank of assistant sub inspector and above, shall register a case under the Act.
2. (2) The excise officer or police officer concerned shall then proceed for investigation of the case.
3. (3) After investigation of the case, he shall file a Report within Sixty –Days from the date of registration of the case.
4. (4) The Report so filed shall be deemed to be a Police Report for the purposes of Section- 173(2) and Section-190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ,1973 ( Act 2 of 1974).
5. (5) The Collector shall ensure that the aforementioned Report is filed in time and shall also monitor effective prosecution of the cases before the Courts.
6. (6) The Superintendent of Police shall closely monitor the status of cases filed by the police officers under this Act and shall submit period reports to the Excise Commissioner and the Collector. Chapter IX APPEALS AND REVISION

1. (1) All final orders passed by any Excise Officer other than the Excise Commissioner or Collector under this Act, shall be appealable to the Collector within sixty days from the date of the order.
2. (2) All final orders passed by the Collector and Excise Commissioner shall be appealable to the Excise Commissioner and the State Government respectively within ninety days from the date of the order complained of. Provided that no second appeal shall lie against an order passed by the Excise Commissioner on appeal. (3)The State Government may make rules in this behalf.

The State Government may, on its own motion or on an application made to

it, call for and examine the recordsof any proceeding before any Excise Officer or any document, including that relating to renewal or refusal of license or grant of permit, passetcunder this Act, for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the correctness and legality of any order passed in, and as to regularity of, any such proceeding and may, when calling for such record, direct that the order be not given effect till thependency of the examination of the record, so called for. After examining the record, the State Government may annul, reverse, modify or confirm such order, or pass such other order as it may deem fit.