K MUKUNDAN Vs. CIRCLE INSPECTOR EXCISE NEYYATTINKARA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is the registered owner of the Ambassador mark II car bearing registration No. K. R. T. 81, which was purchased in 1974 under hire purchase agreement with M/s. Commercial Credit Corporation (P) Ltd. , Madras. It has been registered as a taxi Cab from 1974.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, he appointed a new driver, one Ramachandran Nair on 27-1-1975. It is alleged by him that he came to understand that on 3-2-1975 at about 3 p. m. the vehicle was hired by two persons - Palayan and Thankaraj. They are alleged to have went to Punnavoor near Neyyattinkara. At 5 p. m. on that day the petitioner came to know that the vehicle was seized by the Excise Circle Inspector, the first respondent in this Original Petition. The Driver of the vehicle as well as the persons concerned were arrested for the illegal transportation of the illicit arrack. After the seizure the car was kept in the Excise Range Neyyattinkara.

(3.) IT might be noted that when the Original Petition was filed the petitioner was not served with the order Ext. R-1. His prayer in the original Petition was, as originally filed, for the issue of a writ declaring the seizure of the petitioner's vehicle and the confiscation therein if any already ordered, is illegal and for the issue of a writ of mandamus for directing the respondents to release the petitioner's vehicle as he is the registered owner. There is also a prayer to declare that the provisions contained in Sec. 67 of the Abkari Act are ultra vires and unconstitutional to the extent to which the said provisions seek to confer arbitrary powers of confiscation on the Abkari Officers. After the counter affidavit was filed the prayer (a) in the Original Petition was amended and the petitioner now sought a writ of certiorari for quashing Ext. R-1.