Supreme Court: Appeals dismissed for forfeiture of Dawood Ibrahim properties

On Firday, a Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre rejceted two appeals filed against a 2012 judgment of the Delhi High Court. The court ordered that properties should be forfeitied of Amina Bi Kaskar and Hasina Ibrahim Parkar, the (now deceased) mother and sister, respectively, of Dawood Ibrahim under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) of 1976. In the present matter, the bench was considering if service of notice on a minor is considered a valid service. Also, under SAFEMA if power of rectification includes the power of review. While relying on the judgement of Supreme Court in Kuntesh Gupta v. Managment of Hindu Kanya Mahavidalaya the court held that it had the power to review within the ambit of rectification. The court held that as the appellants had the knowledge of the order for forfeiture against them under Section 7 of the Act of 1976 and which they have admitted to before the Appellate Tribunal for Forfeited Properties, “ then in our opinion, so-called irregularity in the manner of effecting the service of the order on them etc was of no consequence and cannot be termed as illegal per se.