VITTHALBHAI NARANBHAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY way of this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for quashing and setting aside the the impugned action of the respondents in confiscating the stock in question vide order dated 12th December 2000 passed by the District Collector, Junagadh and confirmed in Criminal Appeal No. 42 of 2000 as being illegal, arbitrary, without application of mind and also violative of Articles 14, 19 (1) (g) and 21 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) THE brief facts leading to filing of the present petition are as under :

(3.) MR. D. M. Thakkar, learned advocate for the petitioner, has submitted that the order of confiscation is ex-facie, arbitrary and illegal. It is submitted that the respondent-authority as well as the learned Judge has failed to appreciate the contentions raised and the evidence produced by the petitioner, which has resulted into miscarriage of justice. It is further submitted that the authorities below have not considered the very important aspects by overlooking the fact that some of the stocks was not weighted and, therefore, it was not entered in the stock register and as the partner and administrator of the business was ill, he had not attended the business for two weeks and, therefore, some of the stocks was not entered in the stock register which was not written for about 15 days for the same. It is further submitted that the order impugned in the petition is contrary to the law laid down by the Apex Court reported in the case of N. Nagendra Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1994 SC 2663, whereby the Apex Court has held that for each and every lapse, it is not necessary to confiscate the entire stock. It is submitted that the Court below has failed to appreciate as to whether the ends of just would meet by imposing any lesser punishment considering the fact that the alleged breach of lapse was not deliberate and it was the first lapse of the said nature and there was no oblique motive of hoarding or black marketing the said stock to reap the profit. Thus, the impugned orders are required to be quashed and set aside.