THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE E. V. VENUGOPAL CRIMINAL REVISION CASE No. 1179 OF 2013

O R D E R:

The present Criminal Revision Case is filed aggrieved by the Judgment dated 30.10.2012 passed in Criminal Appeal No.155 of 2012 on the file of the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Karimnagar (for short, “the appellate Court”) modifying the order of the learned District Collector, Karimnagar directing to confiscate 20% of the value of the seized stock instead of 50%. 2. For the sake of convenience, hereinafter the parties will be referred to as per their array before the appellate Court.

3. Heard Sri K. Venumadhav, learned counsel for the Revision Petitioner and Sri Vizarath Ali, learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing for respondent State.

4. The brief facts of the case are that on 07.08.2012, on credible information that the appellant, Mg.Partner of M/s Thirumala Industries, Rampur village, Huzurabad Mandal was indulging in clandestine business by not maintaining the registers and accounts properly, the Deputy Tahasildar, Vigilanace and Enforcement Department and Mandal Revenue Inspector, surprised the premises of M/s Thirumala Industries, Rampur village, Huzurabad Mandal and found the appellant attending the transactions. On demand, the appellant produced ‘A and B’ Registers, food grains license, acknowledgment of C.M.R, rice and mill levy rice. A study of ‘A and B’ Registers revealed that the entries recorded were overwritten using ink remover and tampered the figures. On physical verification of the available stock on the ground with appellant, it was found that there was variation of (-) 230-00 quintals of CMR paddy, (+) 343-32 quintals of mills paddy and (-) 60-05 quintals of milling rice. On enquiry about the variation, the appellant stated that due to non-maintenance of records, the said variations were found, however, he could not state any reason about the overwriting using ink remover and tampering the figures. Therefore, having reason to believe that the management of M/s Thirumala Traders, Rampur village had been indulging in clandestine business by not maintaining the records properly, overwriting the figures by using ink remover and tampering the figures, the Deputy Tahasilder (CS), Hyderabad, seized the following available stock worth of Rs.21,76,415/- under the cover of panchanama and booked a case under Section 6-A of the E.C.Act.

The Deputy, Tahasildar handed over the seized stock to Sri Katkam Srinivas, proprietor of M/s Laxminarasimha Swamy M.R.M, Huzurabad under proper acknowledgment, for safe custody. Thereafter, a notice as required under Section 6-B of E.C.Act, 1955 was issued to the appellant to submit his written explanation as to why the entire seized stock should not be confiscated in favour of the Government. As the seized stocks were perishable in nature, the District Collector, Karimnagar vide proceedings dated 09.08.2012 directed to take possession of the seized paddy from the custodian and to dispose of the same in public auction and remit the sale proceeds in revenue deposits through challan.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner would draw the attention of this Court even if it is taken as prima facie the Judgment passed by the learned District Collector, which has been confirmed by the learned appellate Court is correct, but, still the factual aspect as to the weight of the confiscated stock has not been weighed and has been admitted by the respondent. Hence, the findings of the variation of the stocks cannot be sustained for the simple reason that the paddy which has been confiscated and without weighing such paddy come to the conclusion about the variation of stock pertaining to the said stock is only upon the imaginary calculations and not on factual weight of the said stocks. The learned counsel for the petitioner relying upon the A.P. Schedule Commodities Dealers (Licensing), storage and regulation order 18 (2)(c) would submit that the producers and wholesale dealers shall be allowed a var