28. Section 152 of the principal enactment is hereby repealed, and the following new section substituted therefor:-
| 152.
| | (1) If any goods are seized for non-payment of duties or any other cause of forfeiture, and any question shall arise in any proceedings whether civil, criminal or otherwise, whether the duties have been paid for the same, or whether the same have been lawfully imported, or lawfully laden or exported. the proof thereof shall lie on the owner or claimer of such goods or on the person against whom any contravention of this Ordinance is alleged and not on the Attorney-General or the officer who seized or stopped such goods or on the prosecution. | | |
| | (2) Where in any proceedings referred to in subsection (1), the question arises whether there has been an attempt to export or take out of Sri Lanka any goods, then, if such goods are found in any place on or near the seashore or the bank of any river in such quantities or packed in such manner as to suggest that such goods are intended to be exported or taken out of Sri Lanka, such goods shall be presumed to be goods in respect of which an attempt to export or take out of Sri Lanka has been made. | | |
| | (3) In any proceedings referred to in subsection (1), a certificate purporting to be under the hand of the Principal Collector of Customs or a Deputy Collector of Customs that the goods referred to in that certificate are in his opinion imported goods, shall be prima facie proof of such fact and shall be admitted in evidence without any further proof that it is so signed; and it shall not be competent for any court to require the Principal Collector of Customs or the Deputy Collector of Customs to disclose the reasons upon which such opinion is expressed. ". | | |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts