TIMBER PVT LTD Vs. ASSISTANT COLLECTOR, JAMMU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will dispose of two writ petitions (1) Writ petition No. 166 of 31 -3 -1970 M/S Timber Private Limited and another Vs. The Assistant Collector, Jammu; and (2) Writ petition No. 12 of 8th May, 1970 M/S Bawa Timbers (Pvt.) Ltd., and another Vs. The Collector, Jammu ; as the point of law that arises for consideration in these two petitions is the same.

(2.) IT appears that the petitioners in both these cases had taken some forest contracts in Himachal Pradesh. According to the petitioners in both cases they did not owe anything to the Forest Department there but rather the Forest Department mentioned above had to compensate the petitioners. Somehow the Forest Department Chamba Forest Division wrote to the Collector Chamba District that Rs. 1,33,253.84 be recovered from M/S Timber (P) Limited and a copy of the said letter was sent to the Collector Jammu for recovery of the dues from the said lessees. In the notice issued by the Special Tehsildar Recovery (Assistant Collector), Jammu to Gurdial Singh the sum recoverable is shown as Rs. 5,66,069.15. In the case of Bawa Timbers (Pvt.) Limited, the Collector Chamba District has sent a requisition to the Collector Jammu for recovery of Rs. 6,12,643.03 as the balance of royalty of sale of trees from lot No. 5/64 -66 Churah (Chamba) from M/S Bawa Timber (P) Limited, Dhangu Road, Pathankot and from P.R. Rishi Proprietor of the said firm residing at 8, Canal Road, Jammu (Tawi). The collector Chamba District had requested the Collector Jammu District to recover these amounts under the provisions of Revenue Recovery Act, 1890, as if the said revenue had accrued in the District of the Collector Jammu and after recovering it remit it to the Divisional Forest Officer Chamba Forest Division under intimation to the Collector Chamba. In pursuance of this requisition a notice has been issued to P. R. Rishi, the petitioner, to deposit the amount otherwise he would be bound down to pay the said sum.

(3.) THE petitioners challenge the reference made by the Collector Chamba to the Collector Jammu and further state that the Recovery Officer, Assistant Commissioner Jammu, has no power to realise this amount from the petitioners as arrears of land revenue. Many more contentions are raised in the petition but it is not necessary to refer to them and the petitions can be disposed of without mentioning the averments made by either side other than what has been already stated.