Introduction

The smuggling of contraband in India is an age-old phenomenon. In early seventies, these activities became so rampant that it started posing a serious threat to the Indian economy. The penal provisions of the Customs Act and the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act were not deterrent enough to prevent the smugglers and foreign exchange violators from indulging in such offences. To curb the increasing deleterious effect of these illegal activities on the national economy, the Government of India enacted the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974. This Act provides for detention of persons indulging in smuggling or violating foreign exchange regulations. The wealth amassed by these criminal activities is invariably invested in properties. The Government, therefore, to eliminate the incentive to indulge in such nefarious activities, brought in the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976 commonly called SAFEMA, designed to forfeit ill-gotten properties of the offenders irrespective of whether such properties are held in their own names or in the names of their relatives, associates and confidants.

India was not in the scenario of drug trafficking till late seventies. Geographically, India is flanked by Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle – the two main sources of opiates in the world – and Nepal, which is the major source of cannabis. Thus, over the years, India emerged as a major transit country for the movement of narcotic drugs from these areas to other parts of the world. However from early eighties, India started becoming vulnerable to trafficking in drugs as a transit country for movement of drugs from the neighboring countries to other parts of the world and the problem assumed alarming proportions. The transit traffic has resulted in a spillover problem and drug addiction took its roots in India. With this, the clandestine manufacture of various narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances started in India. At that point of time, such operations were governed by Opium Act of 1857, Opium Act of 1878 and the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930. These antiquated laws were not vigorous enough to combat growing menace of drug trafficking. To meet this challenge, the Government of India took legal, administrative and preventive steps. As a first measure, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, in short NDPS Act, was enacted repealing the erstwhile laws. In order to further strengthen the hands of the enforcement agencies, provisions of preventive detention under which the drug traffickers could be detained for a period of one to two years so as to prevent them from indulging in such illegal culture were brought in the PITNDPS Act in 1988. United Nations Convention of 1988 against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances provided for identification, tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the properties relating to drug crimes. For implementing these provisions, the NDPS Act was further amended in the year 1989, by introducing Chapter V-A providing for forfeiture of properties derived from, or used in illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. It also provided for seizing or freezing of properties identified as relatable to illicit drug traffic.