‘Reason to Believe’ or ‘Reasonable Belief’

One of the essential conditions to be satisfied before authorizing/conducting the inspection or search in respect of all the provisions pertaining to Central Excise, Service Tax and Customs is ‘reason to believe’. The same expression has been borrowed in the  Model GST Law. Reason to believe is to have knowledge of facts which, although not amounting to direct knowledge, would cause a reasonable person, knowing the same facts, to reasonably conclude the same thing. As per Section 26 of the IPC, 1860, “A person is said to have ‘reason to believe’ a thing, if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise.” The word ‘believe’ is much stronger than the word ‘suspect’. A belief in the existence of a thing requires a more solid foundation than in the case of a mere suspicion. ‘Reason to believe’ contemplates an objective determination based on intelligent care and evaluation as distinguished from a purely subjective consideration. It has to be and must be that of an honest and reasonable person based on relevant material and circumstances. Although the officer is not required to state the reasons for such belief before issuing an authorization for search, he has to disclose the material on which his belief was formed. ‘Reason to believe’ need not be recorded invariably in each case. However, it would be better if the materials / information etc. are recorded before issue of search warrant or before conducting search. In case the authorizing officer’s satisfaction of reasonable belief is questioned in any collateral proceedings, only then he has to produce relevant evidence which formed the basis of his belief. Generally, courts do not go into the question of sufficiency of material to form such belief. The existence of such material is considered sufficient. Only in those cases where seizure is unreasonable and perverse and that no reasonable person could have reached that conclusion, procedures become unauthorized.