FCRA Sections 26 and 27: Disposal of Seized Property and Seizure Procedure
Sections 26 and 27 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 deal with what happens after an article, currency or security is seized under the Act and which criminal procedure law governs the seizure.
Section 26 - Disposal of seized article or currency or security
Section 26 creates a procedure for dealing with property seized under the FCRA. It permits specified seized property to be disposed of without waiting indefinitely for the criminal case, while preserving evidentiary value through a Magistrate-certified inventory.
Statutory text of Section 26
(1) The Central Government, may, having regard to the value of article or currency or security, their vulnerability to theft or any relevant consideration, by notification, specify such article or currency or security which shall, as soon as may be after their seizure, be disposed of by such officer and in such manner, as the Central Government may, from time to time, determine after following the procedure hereinafter specified.
(2) The article or currency or security seized shall be forwarded without unnecessary delay to such officer as may be specified.
(3) Where any article or currency or security has been seized and forwarded to such officer, the officer referred to in sub-section (1), shall prepare an inventory of such article or currency or security containing such details relating to their description, value or such other identifying particulars as the officer referred to in that sub-section may consider relevant to the identity of the article or the currency or security and make an application to any Magistrate for the purposes of certifying the correctness of the inventory so prepared.
(4) Where an application is made under sub-section (2), the Magistrate shall, as soon as may be, allow the application.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872) or the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), every court trying an offence under this Act, shall treat the inventory, as certified by the Magistrate, as primary evidence in respect of such offence.
(6) Every officer acting under sub-section (3) shall forthwith report the seizure to the Court of Session or Assistant Sessions Judge having jurisdiction for adjudging the confiscation under section 29.
What Section 26 means in practical terms
The provision can be understood as a chain of safeguards. First, the Central Government may identify categories of seized article, currency or security that should be disposed of promptly because of their value, vulnerability to theft or another relevant consideration. Second, the seized property must be forwarded without unnecessary delay to the specified officer.
The officer then prepares an inventory recording the description, value and other identifying particulars. A Magistrate certifies the inventory. The certified inventory is important because Section 26(5) directs the trial court to treat it as primary evidence for an offence under the FCRA. The seizure must also be reported promptly to the Court of Session or Assistant Sessions Judge having jurisdiction over confiscation under Section 29.
Section 27 - Seizure to be made in accordance with criminal procedure law
The enacted heading refers to Act 2 of 1974, meaning the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The statutory text is:
The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 shall apply in so far as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act to all seizures made under this Act.
In other words, the FCRA is the special statute. General criminal procedure supplements an FCRA seizure only to the extent that it is consistent with the FCRA.
Current position after BNSS 2023 and BSA 2023
The wording printed in Sections 26 and 27 still refers to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Both enactments were repealed when the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 came into force on 1 July 2024.
For current interpretation, Section 8 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 provides that when a Central Act repeals and re-enacts a provision, references in another enactment to the repealed provision are ordinarily construed as references to the re-enacted provision, unless a different intention appears. The repeal-and-savings provisions of the BNSS and BSA also preserve the old procedural or evidence law for specified proceedings that were already pending immediately before commencement.
Accordingly, the historical statutory wording should not be deleted from a bare-act presentation. For a present-day matter, however, the applicable procedural and evidence regime should be identified with reference to the date and status of the particular investigation, application, trial, inquiry, proceeding or appeal.
This page is an explanatory legal information resource. For an individual seizure, confiscation or prosecution, the applicable law may depend on the date and procedural stage of the matter.