JUDGMENT - KHANDEPARKAR R.M.S., J.:---Heard the learned Advocate for the petitioners and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the respondents.

2. The petitioners challenge the order passed by the Authorised Officer and confirmed by the Additional Sessions Judge in relation to the tractor and trolley which was seized by the Forest Officer in exercise of powers under section 52 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Act"). The challenge is on two grounds, namely, that the transportation of firewood and the timber through the vehicle of the petitioners was under the bona fide belief that the same is being transported pursuant to the issuance of necessary transit pass and secondly, that the respondents themselves had admitted before the Magistrate that the wood transported through the vehicle of the petitioners was not from the Government land but it was from the private land.

3. Few facts relevant for the decision are that on 22-4-1988 the vehicle of the petitioner driven by himself was intercepted near village Kooba within the district of Bhandara, by the patrolling party of the forest department and was found transporting firewood and four logs o

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