J. Chelameswar, C. J.

1. This batch of writ appeals and the writ petitions raise a common question. Cargo vehicles owned by the various persons (writ appellants or writ petitioners, as the case may be) were seized by the authorities functioning under the provisions of the Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Removal of Sand Act, 2001 on the allegation that these vehicles were found transporting "river sand" in contravention of some provision or other of the above mentioned enactment. Section 23 of the said Act authorises the confiscation of a vehicle which is found transporting sand without complying with the provisions of the Act. Such a confiscation was required to be made by the District Collector under Rules 27 and 28 of the Rules known as Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Removal of Sand Rules, 2002.

2. The case of all the petitioners and the appellants before us is that the confiscation proceedings before the Collector take an unduly long time and during the pendency of such proceedings the vehicles seized are left unprotected and exposed to the vagaries of the weather. Therefore, in the event even if the confiscation proceedings resul