Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Chhatarpal S/O Kapoor vs State Of Rajasthan on 12 November, 2020
(1 of 3) [CRLMP-3507/2020]
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Criminal Miscellaneous (Petition) No. 3507/2020
Chhatarpal S/o Kapoor, R/o Sonkhri, Ps Kherli, Dist. Alwar, Raj.
----Petitioner
Versus
State Of Rajasthan, Through Pp
----Respondent
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Girish Khandelwal For Respondent(s) : Mr. Prashant Sharma, PP
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA Order 12/11/2020 A factual report has been submitted by the Regional Forest Officer, Laxmangarh dated 6.11.2020 relating to the present case.
Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that as the offences under the Rajasthan Forest Act are non-cognizable offences and therefore FIR could not have been registered by the Police Station and it is submitted that the police could not have further conducted investigation on the said basis.
Learned counsel relies on the judgment passed by Coordinate Bench of this Court in SB Criminal Misc. Petition No. 2002/2015: Mousam Khan Versus State of Rajasthan & Anr. decided on 29.4.2015 as well as SB Criminal Misc. Petition No.788/2017: Sattar Khan Versus State of Rajasthan decided on 17.2.2017, to submit that such FIR shall have to be quashed.
The factual report submitted by the Regional Forest Officer, Laxmangarh Division Alwar, it is stated that a departmental FIR (Downloaded on 12/11/2020 at 10:49:12 PM) (2 of 3) [CRLMP-3507/2020] 11/47 was registered by the Forest Department on 14 th July, 2020 with regard to the offences found to have been committed by the accused under Sections 32, 33, 41 and 42 of the Rajasthan Forest Act. After having prepared the said report, the concerned Forest Officer conducted the investigation and found the offences having been committed by the petitioner and vehicle was also seized on 16.7.2020 under Sections 32, 33, 41, 42 read with 52 of the Rajasthan Forest Act, 1953 as amended in 2012. It is stated that thereafter the notices were issued by the Assistant Forest Ranger and Competent Officer, Rajgarh on 17.7.2020 to the accused- petitioner to put up his defence who did not appear before the concerned Forest Officer on 7.8.2020, 27.8.2020 and 18.9.2020, whereafter a notice was pasted on the house and the seizure memo was also pasted and action was taken to lodge a complaint in terms of Section 52 of Rajasthan Forest Act of 2012 and the vehicle was confiscated vide order dated 25.9.2020. Thereafter, a complaint has been filed before the concerned Court for violation of the provisions of the Act for committing offences as stated above. With a request to initiate proceedings and impose a fine as well as imprisonment, the complaint has been filed on 7.11.2020.
I have considered the factual report as well as submissions of the petitioner.
The contention of the petitioner is that FIR could not have been lodged, is misconceived. In the present case, there is no FIR registered under Section 154 Cr.P.C. by the Police station. It is a case where the departmental FIR which is a sort of preliminary report has been registered by the Forest Department at their own office and an investigation thereafter has been conducted, seizure and confiscation have been conducted in terms of Section 52 of (Downloaded on 12/11/2020 at 10:49:12 PM) (3 of 3) [CRLMP-3507/2020] the Rajasthan Forest Act, 2012 and now a complaint has been filed before the concerned Judicial Magistrate Kherli, District Alwar, who will now conduct investigation in terms of provisions of Cr.P.C. and the provision of the Act of 2012. In view thereof, no case for interference is made out and it is not a case for quashing of FIR under Section 154 of the Act as there is no chalked under Section 154 Cr.P.C. Hence, the cases cited at the Bar are distinguishable.
This Criminal Misc. Petition is misconceived and the same is accordingly dismissed.
(SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA),J NITIN /38 (Downloaded on 12/11/2020 at 10:49:12 PM) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)