A.M. Bhattacharjee, J. - (1.) These two Writ Petitions, heard together and disposed of by this common judgment, have mainly raised the question as to whether timber -logs are covered by the provisions of the Plants, Fruits and Seeds (Regulation of Import Into India) Order, 1989, hereinafter referred to as 'the Order', made by the Central Government in exercise of the powers conferred by Sec. 3(1) of the Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914, hereinafter referred to as the Act. The object of the Act, as apparent, from the Preamble and the Long Title, is "to make provisions for preventing the introduction into India of any insect, fungus or other pest, which is or may be destructive to crops" and the expression "crops" has been defined in Sec. 2(a) of the Act to include "all agricultural or horticultural crops' and all trees, bushes or plants".
(2.) Sec. 3(1), whereunder the Order of 1989 has been issued, clearly empowers the Central Government, "by notification in the Gazette of India," "to prohibit or regulate, subject to such restrictions and conditions as the Central Government may impose, the import into India. of any articles or class of articles likely to pause Infection to -any crop. The -expression articles used in Sec. 3(1), being a word of wide amplitude, would obviously include timber -logs also, and, therefore, a Notification under Sec. 3(1) imposing restrictions and conditions, on import, may be made applicable to timber -logs. But both Mr. Gupta and Mr. Pal., the Learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners have very strongly urged that the Order in question, as framed, does not and cannot apply to timber -logs. Not that no Order can be made under Sec. 3(1) of the Act in respect of timber -logs, but that no such Order has in fact been made and, in particular, the Order of 1989, on its terms, cannot apply to timber -logs.
(3.) As the Short Title, the definition clause being Clause 2, and the various Statutory Forms for Application and Permit, being Forms "A", "B", "C", "D", "F", "G", would go to show that the Order is intended to cover Plants, Seeds, Fruits and Soil/Peat. Obviously timber -logs are not Fruits or Seeds or Soil and, therefore, they can be brought within the operation of the Order only if they are Plants as defined in Clause 2(i) of the Order, which reads thus : - Plants means any plant or part thereof, whether living or dead, trees, shrubs, nursurvey stock, and includes all vegetatively propagated materials. One, if he is in doubt, has only to consult any standard lexicon to appreciate that all trees are plant and while other plants may be annual or seasonal in nature, bushy type or creeping on the ground, trees are those plants which are perennial in nature with single woody self -supporting stem or trunk usually unbranched for some distance above ground. Therefore, the definition of Plant in clause 2(i) of the Order to mean trees also is nothing unusual.;