BINOD KUMAR ROY, J.

( 1 ) WHETHER Factory or Mill prepared catechu or Katha is a forest Produce, as defined under Section 2 (4) of the Forest Act is the real question which requires our adjudication in this writ petition in which the prayer of petitioner, which is a limited company, whose factory is situated at Izzatnagar District Bareilly in our State, is to quash Range Case Crime No. 16/knp/95-96 under Rules 3/28 U. P. Transit of Timber and other Forest Rules, 1978complaint/seizure Report dated 20-2-1996 (as contained in Annexure 10 to the writ petition ). Its further prayer is to restrain the respondents from insisting it to take transit pass for moving Kattha manufactured by it.

( 2 ) THE case of the petitioner is to this effect :- (i) Since 1921 it is engaged in manufacturing Kattha out of Khair Wood, which is a natural forest wood. (ii) Kattha is produced after processing Khair wood which takes a period of about 40-45 days. Firstly upper layer of the Khair wood is removed at the Kattha producing factories. Then inner hard wood is cut into small chips and boiled in water at about 102 C. Thus another liquor is prepared which is made thick by evaporation process. It is put into

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