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Jharkhand High Court · body

2017 DIGILAW 6 (JHR)

Shankar Singh v. State of Jharkhand

2017-01-03

RONGON MUKHOPADHYAY

body2017
ORDER : 1. Heard the parties. 2. This application is directed against the order dated 31.8.2016 passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh in Sadar (M) P.S. Case No. 814 of 2012, by which the application preferred by the petitioner for release of soft coal has been rejected. 3. It has been submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that a confiscation proceeding was also initiated against the petitioner by the Divisional Forest Officer, which, however, was dropped on consideration of the fact that the documents with respect to purchase of coal were genuine. It has further been submitted that the learned court below has not come to any finding with respect to its refusal to release the said coal. 4. Learned A.P.P. has supported the impugned order. 5. It appears that in the confiscation proceeding, a verification report was called for from which it appears that there was a dispute as to whether the factory from which road challan was taken was closed or not at the relevant point of time and a subsequent verification was also made, which led the confiscating authority to come to a conclusion that at the time of transportation, the factory was still in existence. Considering the said circumstance, confiscation proceeding was dropped by order dated 29.6.2016. The application subsequently preferred by the petitioner for release of the coal before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh was rejected on 31.8.2016 without assigning any appropriate reason for such rejection. Verification, which finds place in the order of the confiscating authority, suggests that the coal was genuinely purchased and was being transported. Such fact, therefore, entitles the petitioner to get release of the soft coal. 6. In such view of the matter, the impugned order dated 31.8.2016, passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh in Sadar (M) P.S. Case No. 814 of 2012, is hereby quashed and set aside and the learned court below is directed to pass a fresh order for release of soft coal on terms and conditions it finds suitable.