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Judgment
T.R. Ramachandran Nair, J.—The petitioner''s lorry bearing registration No.KL-07-AL-4302 has been seized by the first respondent on 16.4.2009 alleging that the driver of the petitioner transported river sand in the said vehicle. Going by the averments in the writ petition, so far the action has not been finalised. The petitioner contends that the Revenue Divisional Officer is not having any power to deal with the matter, in the light of the fact that the Ordinance has lapsed by July, 2011. The said legal position is clear from the judgment of this Court in Raju v. Circle Inspector (2012 (2) KLT 350). The petitioner is relying upon the judgment of a Division Bench of this Court in Sujith Vs. State of Kerala, whereby a direction has been issued to the officers concerned to file a report before the Criminal court having jurisdiction, so that the parties will be able to seek remedy under the Code of Criminal Procedure. The relevant paragraph is extracted below:
It is hereby ordered that the revenue and police authorities, while effecting seizure, shall ensure that any revenue official effecting the seizure, notifies such seizure, also to a police official, over and above the requirement in S.22 of the Act and the Rules. That police official may effect seizure of those goods and report such seizure to the jurisdictional Magistrate in accordance with law and any police officer effecting seizure shall, apart from reporting any such seizure to the jurisdictional Magistrate, also place a report of such seizure before the concerned revenue authority so that action can follow through the criminal court and through the revenue authority in terms of the laws. Following the aforesaid, it is further ordered that in all pending cases, the competent police officer shall effect seizure and report the same to the jurisdictional magistrate, if not already done and the competent revenue authority shall make appropriate complaint to the jurisdictional Magistrate at the earliest. This would also enable the owners of the goods or vehicles to apply for interim custody in terms of S.451 or 457 Cr.P.C., as the case may be. In ordering release, the Judicial Magistrate shall be guided by the terms laid down by the Full Bench of this Court in Shan Vs. State of Kerala, . The appropriate authorities shall also file complaints for initiating prosecution in all cases, where offences under the Act are disclosed. These directions shall apply in dealing with sand and vehicles, seized by the police or revenue authority under the provisions of the Act or the Code of Criminal Procedure, over and above the directions in Moosakoya ( 2008 (1) KLT 538) and Shoukathali (2009 (1) KLT 640), until appropriate legislative provisions are brought in.
Therefore, if the proceedings have not been concluded so far, the respondents will take appropriate action in terms of the directions issued by the Division Bench in the above judgment. The same will be done after getting a status report from the District Collector or the Revenue Divisional Officer, as the case may be, within a period of two weeks from the date of production of a copy of this judgment along with a copy of the writ petition.
The writ petition is disposed of as above. No costs.