AMIT KUMAR Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY way of this interlocutory application the petitioner seeks to add a prayer made in para 10 of the instant I.A., whereby the petitioner seeks to challenge the final order dated 30th December,2007 passed in Confiscation Case No.43/2007 by the Deputy Commissioner, Hazaribagh.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, the writ petition was preferred initially for quashing the entire confiscation proceeding arising out of the said confiscation case, thereafter, during pendency of the writ petition, the final order, sought to be impugned by way of the instant I.A., has been passed. Therefore, the amendment sought for is necessary in view of the subsequent development, in the interest of justice. Counsel for the respondents does not dispute the same.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner, on the basis of the aforesaid facts, submits that simply on account of the fact that the bags bear the FCI marks do not implicate the petitioner of having indulged in violation of the Essential Commodities Act or any control order issued under the said Act. LEARNED counsel for the petitioner also relied upon judgments rendered by this Court, as has been brought on record as Annexure 9 series by way of reply to the counter affidavit in the case of Vijay Sao vs. State of Jharkhand, WP(C) No.4447/2007, Nawal Prasad Sao vs. State of Jharkhand and others, WP(C) No.4335/2007 and Bajrangi Kedia @ Jhagru Seth vs. State of Jharkhand and others, WP(C) No.4384/2007. It is submitted on behalf of the counsel for the petitioner that in those cases it is held that wheat/rice does not come within the schedule of Essential Commodities Act and the respondents have no power to confiscate the same in the purported exercise of power under Section 6(2) of the E.C. Act. The confiscation proceeding itself was quashed as being without jurisdiction by directing the respondents to release the articles in favour of the said petitioner. The learned counsel for the petitioner also submits that in view of Annexure 8 to the writ petition, vide para 30 of the writ petition, these articles have been exempted from the purview of control order under the E.C.Act, which has not been denied in the counter affidavit either on the part of the respondents.