Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Whenever confiscation is authorised by this Act, the 2 [Deputy Commissioner] or Magistrate ordering it may give the owner of the thing liable to be confiscated an option to pay in lieu of the confiscation such fine as such officer thinks fit. When an offence under this Act has been committed but the offender is not known or cannot be found, or when anything liable to confiscation under this Act and not in the possession of any person cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, the case shall be inquired into and determined by the 2 [Commissioner] or by any other officer authorised by him in that behalf who may order such confiscation : Provided that no such order shall be made until the expiration of one month from the date of seizing the things intended to be confiscated or without hearing the persons, if any, claiming any right thereto, and evidence, if any, which they produce in support of their claims.