Point of Law : There is a presumption that forest area belongs to the Government until the contrary is proved.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner is the accused in relation to the various First Information Reports (FIR) registered separately relating to the offence of illegally exporting mined Iron Ore material from Belekere Port without valid permit which is alleged to have been facilitated by the accused-petitioner, who was the then Deputy Conservator of Forests of Bellary District.

2. It is relevant to note that the registration of the FIRs was pursuant to the direction of the Apex Court in Samaj Parivartana Samudaya and Others vs. State of Karnataka and Others, W.P. (Civil) No. 562/2009 and SLP (Civil) Nos. 7366-7367/2010, whereby the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was directed to investigate the alleged illegal mining of Iron Ore in Bellary Reserve Forest area by M/s. Associated Mining Companies.

3. The factual matrix and the legal contentions urged have an overlap in all of the petitions and in order to avoid passing of conflicting orders, the petitions are disposed off by a common order.

BRIEF FACTS:

4. The Apex Court in Samaj Parivartana Samudaya (supra) had constituted a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to conduct a detailed enquiry into the alleged illegal mining in the State of Karnataka and directions were issued as contained in the orders extracted below:

“As recommended in the report of the CEC the CBI should institute FIR(s) as suggested in sub paragraphs (I) and (IV) at pages 12 and 14 respectively of the report and carry out thorough and intensive investigation including, if so required, custodial interrogation of any accused.

[…]

Let copies of the CEC reports dated April 27, 2012 and September 5, 2012, be given to the CBI that may form the basic material for institution of FIR(s). It will be open to the CBI to refer to the other reports of the CEC on the issue submitted earlier.

Pursuant to the institution of the FIR(s) by the CBI as directed above, further proceedings in case No. 189/2010 investigated by the CBI, CID, Karnataka, shall remain stayed. The CID, Karnataka shall hand over all records in regard to that case to the CBI.”

Further, the Apex Court directed the CBI to conduct investigation of illegal extraction of Iron Ore in the forest areas of Karnataka which was transported to Belekere Port between 01.01.2009 to 31.05.2010.

5. Pursuant to the aforesaid directions of the Apex Court, the CBI has registered four FIRs, viz. R.C. Nos. 13(A)/2012, 14(A)/2012, 15(A)/2012 and 16(A)/2012 for the following offences:

(a) Section 120-B, 379, 411, 420, 447 of Indian Penal Code.

(b) Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the P.C. Act.

(c) Section 24 of Indian Forest Act.

(d) Section 21 read with Section 4(1), 4(1)(A) and Section 23 of Mines and Minerals Development and Regulations Act, 1957 ('MMDR Act' for brevity)

6. After completion of investigation, CBI has filed chargesheet against the petitioner and other accused and the petitioner has been charged as regards the commission of offences punishable under Sections 120-B read with Section 409, 420, 434, 447, 468, 471 of IPC and under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(c) and (d) of P.C. Act. The cognizance was taken and charges were framed for the aforesaid offences and trial is in progress.

After completion of investigation and taking note of the chargesheets, cognizance of the offence was taken in R.C. Nos.13-A/2012 (Spl. C.C. No. 21/2014), 14-A/2012 (Spl. C.C. No. 06/2014), 15-A/2012 (Spl. C.C. No. 135/2013) and 16-A/2012 (Spl. C.C. No. 105/2014).

7. The applications for discharge filed before the Special Court have been rejected and upon their rejection, the validity of proceedings have been called in question by invoking the jurisdiction under Section 482 of Cr.P.C.

Applications were also filed by the petitioner/accused before the Special Court under Section 19 of P.C. Act calling in question the validity of proceedings on the ground that the orders of sanction were illegal, which