DEVAPPA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition takes exception to the impugned order dated 19.10.2019 passed by the Civil Judge & JMFC, Yelburga in C.C.No.417/2019 rejecting the application filed by the petitioner seeking release of truck bearing registration No.KA-26/A-5309, which was seized by the respondent authorities under the provisions of Rule 43 of Karnataka Mines and Minerals (Concession Rules) 1994, (for short 'the Rules). Aggrieved by the aforesaid order dated 19.10.2019, the petitioner filed the revision petition in Criminal Revision Petition No.70/2019, which was also dismissed by the Sessions Court vide order dated 04.01.2020. Aggrieved by the aforesaid orders, petitioner is before this Court by way of the present petition.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the impugned order passed by the learned Magistrate is vitiated in as much as the Court has come to the incorrect conclusion that the application ought to have been filed before the Special Court and not before the Magistrate. In this context, it is submitted that the vehicle having been seized by the respondent and custody having been submitted before the Magistrate before whom the proceedings were pending, the impugned order to the ef fect that the application for release of vehicle ought to have been made before the Special Court is erroneous and the same deserves to be quashed.

(3.) Secondly, it is contended that the Sessions Court also committed an error in dismissing the revision petition on the ground that no case is made by the petitioner for release of the vehicle. It is therefore contended that the impugned orders passed by both the Courts are illegal and arbitrary and the same deserves to be quashed by this Court.