KUNJILAL GUPTA Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners being aggrieved by the seizure of their trucks bearing Registration Nos. MP-19/1752 and MBA 8952 by the respondent No. 2/Director, Sanjay Rashtriya Udyan, Sidhi under Section 39 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, for the alleged acts of offence committed under Sections 27 and 29 of the said Act have filed the present petition for quashment of the order dated 17-1-1997 (Annexure P/6) and for the release of their trucks bearing Registration Nos. MP-19/1752 and MBA 8952.

(2.) THE brief controversy pertains to the seizure of the trucks belonging to the petitioners which were being used for the transportation of goods of one Smt. Urmila Singh, wd/o Jainarayan who had the licence and permission to extract the sand under Rule 38(2) of the M.P. Minor Mineral Rules, 1996 from the Gram Panchayat, Akori, District Sidhi for excavation over Khasra No. 391 by order dated 22-8-1996. The respondent No. 2/Director, Sanjay Rashtriya Udyan, Sidhi, however, seized the vehicles on 24-12-1996 despite having respective transit passes, pit passes and other documents as alleged by the petitioners. The trucks were actually seized by the Game Range Officer and the other forest employees and notices were duly issued to the petitioners. The statements of the drivers were recorded on 3-1-1997 (Annexure P/4) and despite applications submitted by the petitioners to the Range Officer, Soan Gariyal Abhyaran, Sidhi for release of the trucks on 3-1-1997, the respondent No. 2/Director, Sanjay Rashtriya Udyan, Sidhi passed orders on 17-1-1997 for seizure of the said trucks stating that they were transporting sand from Soan Gariyal Sanctuary in violation of provisions of Sections 27 and 29 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and as a result the trucks had become the property of the State Government as per Section 39 of the Act (Annexure P/6) and, hence, the present petition.

(3.) COUNSEL for the respondent/State on the other hand has refuted the contentions of the counsel for petitioners stating that the petitioners' trucks were illegally excavating sand from Soan River bed which come in the boundaries of the Soan Gariyal Sanctuary and thus damaged the habitat of the wild life. The impugned order passed in accordance with the provisions of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 was within the competence of respondent No. 2/Director.