ATIKUR RAHMAN Vs. NAIB TAHSILDAR BAIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the opponents Nos. 1 to 3 to release and to deliver to the Petitioner certain timber seized by the said opponents in the following circumstances.

(2.) IN 1961 the Petitioner entered into a contract for the purchase of timber of certain trees standing on the holding of opponent No. 4 Deoria, a tenure -holder as defined in the Madhya Pradesh Protection of Scheduled Tribes (Interest in Trees) Act, 1956. On 10th September 1960 the Petitioner had made an application seeking the permission of the Collector, Balaghat, for the removal of the timber. On this application the Collector made an endorsement saying that no permission was necessary. On the same date (10th September 1960) Deoria also applied to the Collector for permission to fell the timber trees growing in his holding and to remove the timber saying that under Section 179 of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code he had acquired full rights in the trees in his holding and the Madhya Pradesh Protection Scheduled Tribes (Interest in Trees) Act, 1956, had no applicability as he was not entering in to any contract with any person for the sale of timber and that he himself would fell the trees and remove the timber and sell it. On Deoria's application also the Collector made an endorsement saying that no permission was necessary. In September -October 1961 when the timber trees were felled and the timber was being removed thereafter by the Petitioner in a truck it was seized by the Naib -Tahsildar, Baihar, on the ground that the felling of the trees and removal of the timber was without the permission of the Collector. The Petitioners contention is that no permission for the cutting of the trees and removal of the timber was at all necessary under the Madhya Protection of Scheduled Tribes (Interest in Trees) Act, 1956; and that the Naib -Tahsildar was bound to give effect to the Collector's order that no permission was necessary.

(3.) THIS application must be granted. The mainstay of the opponents Nos. 1 and 3 is the Act of 1956. But no provision of this Act is of any assistance to the said opponents in supporting the seizure of the timber. The M. P. Protection of Scheduled Tribes (Interest in Trees) Act, 1956, is a measure enacted for the protection of Scheduled Tribes from exploitation in the matter of transfer of their interest in specified trees. This is evident from the preamble of the Act. Section 3 of the Act runs as follows: