ARJUN BEHERA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ONE of the four accused persons, convicted under Section 27(3)(c) of the Orissa Forest Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') both by the trial Court and the appellate Court, has preferred this Criminal Revision against the judgments of conviction arid the sentence passed against him thereunder.

(2.) THE prosecution case against the Petitioner and the other three accused persons is that they illegally dug earth from an area of Ac. 0.18 decimals of land inside Sunajhari reserve forest and were raising ridges thereon. On the above allegation they were convicted under Section 27(3)(c) of the Act.

(3.) AS this matter has come up before me in my revisional jurisdiction and the entire case record is before me, and the ground on which the Petitioner is being acquitted applies squarely also to the other Adivasi co -accused persons in this case, I, in the interest of justice, deem it just and proper to set aside the orders of conviction and sentence passed against them though they somehow have not been joined as Petitioners in this revision. Prasad Gareri v. Mst. Kesari and Anr. : A.I.R. 1941 Pat. 444, supports such an action. So, the orders of conviction and sentence passed against the other three co -accused persons in 2(b) CC 21 of 1973 are also set aside. I do not, however, know if these accused persons have already under gone the short period of imprisonment passed against them by the Courts below. If by now those accused persons have not been apprehended and have not already undergone the imprisonment imposed against them, they ate not to be apprehended and are not to undergo the imprisonment imposed on them in this case.