Order:

This Writ Petition is filed to declare the action of the fourth respondent in seizing the vehicle bearing registration No.AP 21 W 5040 on

15.10.2020 in Crime No.440 of 2020 as illegal and arbitrary.

The case of the petitioner is that he is the owner of the subject vehicle and that, on 15.10.2020, the fourth respondent intercepted the vehicle and seized the same along with rice on the ground that PDS rice was being transported in the vehicle and a case in Crime No.440 of 2020 was registered under Sections 406, 420 r/w 34 IPC and Section 7(1) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955; the petitioner’s driver transported the rice in the vehicle without his knowledge and seizure of the subject vehicle is illegal. Hence the Writ Petition.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in similar facts and circumstances, this Court in W.P.No.10365 of 2020, dated 22.06.2020, granted liberty to the petitioner therein to file a petition before the concerned Magistrate seeking interim custody of the vehicle and he requests that the same order would be passed in the present case also.

This Court allowed W.P.No.10365 of 2020, observing as follows.

“On hearing learned counsel for petitioner and