Provisions under Indian Post Office Act:
The Indian Post Office Act, 1898, contains certain provisions to facilitate this control. The first of these is section 24 of the Indian Post Office Act, which reads as under:
Power to deal with postal articles containing goods contraband or liable to duty [Section 24] : Except as otherwise provided in this Act, where a postal article suspected to contain any goods of which the import by post or the transmission by post is prohibited by or under any enactment for the time being in force, or anything is liable to duty, writing to the addressee, initiating him to attend, either in person, or by an agent, within a specified time at a post office, and shall in the presence of the addressee, or his agent, or if the addressee or his agent fails to attend as aforesaid, then in his absence open and examine the postal article.
It therefore, follows that
(1) The post office authority has a right and duty to open and examine a postal article.
(2) The right can be exercised only if he has a reasonable suspicion that the goods contained in the postal article are-(a) liable to duty of customs, or (b) subject to a prohibition under any law in force.
(3) Before opening and examining the postal article he should issue a notice in writing to the addressee asking him to be present at an appointed time and place for the opening of the postal article.
(4) The addressee can be present either in person or by an agent; and if the addressee or his agent does not turn up at the appointed time and place, the postal authorities are entitled to open and examine the postal article in his absence.
Delivery to customs authority: The power enabling the postal authorities to deliver such articles to the Customs authorities is enshrined in section 24A of the Indian Post Office Act. The relevant provisions read as follows:
The Central Government may, by a general or special order, empower any officer of the post office, specified in such order, to deliver any postal article, received from beyond the limits of India and suspected to contain anything liable to duty, to such customs authority as may be specified in the said order and such customs authority shall deal with such article in accordance with the provisions of the Sea Customs Act [now Customs Act, 1962] or any other law for the time being in force.
Thus, once the postal authorities have found some postal article to contain dutiable or prohibited goods, that authority should deliver the postal article in question to the customs authority for necessary action.