New Delhi, Oct. 21: BSF personnel posted in Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Punjab, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir have the power to confiscate goods being smuggled out of the country, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat made the observation while quashing a judicial magistrate’s order directing an inquiry against a BSF officer in Tripura, who had arrested a person after seizing 22 quintals of sugar allegedly being smuggled to Bangladesh.

The assistant commandant of the BSF, while on a special patrol on December 31, 1998, had seized the sugar from a vehicle intercepted at a distance of about 200 yards from the Bangladesh border. While the driver was arrested as he could not produce relevant documents and was handed over to police, the consignment was sent to the inspector of customs, Belonia.

The BSF had approached the apex court after Gauhati High Court upheld the ruling by the sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Belonia in south Tripura.

Ordering the release of the person arrested by the BSF, the judicial magistrate had said that carrying sugar was not a penal offence and that the officer had no authority to seize it on a public road. He also directed a probe and sought a report from the BSF on the incident.

The high court dismissed the BSF’s appeal, saying the force was not above law.

In its plea before the Supreme Court, the BSF argued that the judicial magistrate’s order had no sanction in law. He had ignored the central government’s notifications dealing with the functioning of BSF personnel posted in the six border states, the BSF said.

The apex court dismissed the high court ruling and also the Assam government’s contention that the judicial magistrate was right.