UMESH KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner is permitted to correct the vehicle number / registration number in C.W.J.C. No. 6442 of 2015.

(2.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties. Since in each of these cases the relief prayed by the petitioners is identical hence they have been taken up together for analogous hearing and final disposal with the consent of the parties. The petitioners in each of the writ petitions seek a direction to the Authorized Officer cum -Divisional Forest Officer, Rohtas Forest Division, District -Rohtas at Sasaram under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, for provisional release of their respective vehicle pending adjudication of the confiscation proceedings.

(3.) IN each of these cases the vehicle of these petitioners stands seized on grounds of alleged violation of the provisions of the Indian Forest Act and which has led to institution of the Forest Case / Police Case which are now pending consideration in respective confiscation proceedings before the Authorized Officer who happens to be the Divisional Forest Officer, Rohtas Forest Division, Rohtas. The contention advanced by the learned counsel for the respective petitioners is that keeping the vehicles under the open sky to face the vagaries of the weather would serve no purpose and would only turn them obsolete rendering them useless for any future use and which would benefit none rather it would only result in loss. Learned counsel for the respective petitioners have stated that the petitioners would not be creating any third party right nor they would alienate the vehicle pending disposal of the respective confiscation case and that they would produce the vehicle as and when required in the confiscation proceedings. It is also the contention of learned counsel that release petitions have also been filed before the statutory authority but has remained pending in most of the cases and thus these writ petitions. The individual details of the petitioner in each of the writ petitions are given hereinbelow.