Court : Supreme Court of India
..... he was questioned with reference to forest offence report which was prepared during the inspection of the saw-mill on 6th january, 2003, ..... being referred to as ao1 ) and accused officer no.2(hereinafter being referred to as ao2 ) were convicted and sentenced as below:- 1 i) offence punishable under section 7 of prevention of corruption act, 1988(hereinafter being referred to as pc act ): rigorous imprisonment of one year and a fine of rs.1,000/- each (in default, simple imprisonment for three months) ii) offence punishable under section 13(1)(d) read with 13(2) of pc act: rigorous imprisonment of one year and a fine of rs. ..... after a week of this event, the appellant(ao1) and the forest guard(ao2) again came to the saw- mill and demanded a monthly amount(mamool) of rs.5,000/- to refrain from taking any further action ..... trial court framed charges against the appellant(ao1) and ao2 for the offences punishable under sections 7, 13(1)(d) read with section 13(2) of the pc ..... 2003, the flying squad of the forest department comprising of mir mustafa, forest section officer(appellant herein)(ao1) and ..... acceptance or receipt of an illegal gratification without anything more would not make it an offence under section 7 or sections 13(1)(d)(i) and (ii), respectively of the act. ..... by the public servant when accepted by the bribe-giver and in turn there is a payment made which is received by the public servant, would be an offence of obtainment under sections 13(1)(d)(i) and (ii) of the act. 88.5. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... the learned judge was not prepared to accept that the moving of the trees, by itself, would amount to a violation of rule 3 of the kerala forest produce transit rules, 1975, whereby it could be held that a forest offence was committed, as the lands in question belonged to p.j.antony and cheriyan kuruvila, who were closely related to each other, and were adjacent lands. ..... a feeble attempt was made by the forest department to claim that a presumption would arise under section 69 of the forest act, whereby commission of a forest offence could be inferred, but we are not persuaded to agree. ..... what weighed primarily with the learned judge in allowing the writ petitions was that there was no evidence of any forest offence having been committed, whereby the power of confiscation under section 61a (2) of the kerala forest act, 1961 (for brevity, the forest act ) could have been invoked. ..... section 2(e) of the forest act defines a forest offence to mean an offence punishable under the forest act or any rule made thereunder. ..... those admissions are more than enough to decimate the case sought to be put forth by the forest department that a forest offence was committed by p.j.antony and cheriyan kuruvila.10. ..... even at this stage, there is no 10 answer forthcoming from the forest department as to how a forest offence is made out in the case on hand.11. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... guidelines issued by the central government and in case the sanctuary also falls under the scheduled areas or areas where the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of forest rights) act, 2006 is applicable, in accordance with the management plan for such sanctuary prepared after due consultation with the gram sabha concerned and for ..... facilities; ii) standards/norms for recognition of elephant rehabilitation/rescue centres (erc) under section 42 of the wildlife (protection) act, 1972 recommends that ercs should be located, preferably near the forest areas with access to water body/streams (f.no.2-5/2006-pe (vol.ii) dated 29.10.2017; iii) as per provision 2.1.4 of national zoo policy, 1998, .zoos shall continue to function as rescue ..... of scientific and objective criteria, that such areas are required to be kept as inviolate for the purposes of tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the scheduled tribes or such other forest 44 dwellers, and notified as such by the state government in consultation with an expert committee constituted for the purpose; (ii) buffer or peripheral area consisting of the area peripheral to critical ..... of the works which have been listed above, yet for unknown reasons, he was not named as an accused in the forest offences. ..... against the dfo kishan chand and a forest ranger for offences punishable under sections 420, 466, 467, 23 468, 471, 409, 120b, 218/34 ipc, section 26 of the forest act and section 13(1)(a) and 13(2) of .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... that the judicial officer forest offence - exclusively proved had granted bail to an triable by magistrate. ..... under the karnataka conditional bail had been forest act, at the granted, application for instance of the counsel cancellation of bail was filed, for the accused, and counsel appearing for the preponed the case and accused did not refute granted bail ..... the judicial officer had, somasekhar was the advocate proved in a case involving appearing for the two accused, offences punishable had a grievance against him. ..... not a accused in a case violation of section 86, 87 involving offences nor was it an ivory case. ..... under the karnataka was under section, 104(a), forest act, 1963. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... officer concerned should pass a written order recording reasons for confiscation, if he is satisfied that a forest offence has been committed by using the items marked for confiscation. ..... several possible alternatives could be thought of, with reference to prohibiting or regulating benami transactions for avoiding prejudice to private individuals or minimising litigation: (i) entering into a benami transactions could be made an offence; (ii) a provision may be enacted to the effect that in a civil suit a right shall not be enforced against the benamidar or against a third person, by or on behalf of the person claiming to be the real owner of the property ..... or any other article other than timber or forest produce seized, confiscation may be directed unless the person referred to in clause (b) of sub section (5) is able to satisfy that the articles were used without his knowledge or connivance or, as the case may be, without the knowledge or connivance of his servant or agent and that all reasonable and necessary precautions had been taken against the use of such objects for commission of forest offence. ..... the satisfaction of 82 the authorised officer with regard to the commission of forest offence. ..... element of mens rea, but it is a sound rule of construction adopted in england and also accepted in india to construe a statutory provision creating an offence in conformity with common law rather than against it, unless the statute expressly or by necessary implication excluded mens rea. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... this power can be exercised by the officer concerned if he is satisfied that the said objects were utilized during the commission of a forest offence.11.3 according to the scheme of the legislation, it was also observed in kallo bai (supra) that the jurisdiction of the criminal courts, regarding disposal of property, are made subject ..... owner of the vehicle and furthermore in terms of sub-section (2) thereof an opportunity has to be granted to the owner of the vehicle so as to enable him to show that the same has been used in carrying forest produce without his knowledge or connivance and by necessary implication precautions therefor have been taken.19. insofar as the submission of the state counsel that the burden of proof is on the truck owner in the process of confiscation, ..... in the event a valid seizure is made and the authorized officer satisfies himself as regards ownership of the forest produce in the state as also commission of a forest offence. ..... most significantly, the 2004 act with which we are concerned here, does not have any non obstante clause as in the section 52-c(1) of the forest act,1927 (as amended in relation to the state of madhya pradesh by m.p act 25 of 1983) or section 15-c of the madhya pradesh van upaj (vyaapar viniyam) adhiniyam, 1969 10 ..... here it was emphasized on the need to maintain balance between statutes framed in public interest such as the forest act, 1927 (and the relevant insertions under w.b act 22 of 1988) and the consequential proceedings, .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this chapter, where a forest offence is believed to have been committed in respect of timber, charcoal, firewood or ivory which is the property of the government, the officer seizing the property under sub-section (1) of section 52 shall, without any unreasonable delay, produce it, together with all tools, ropes, chains, boats, vehicles and cattle used in committing such offence, before an officer authorized by the government in this behalf by ..... (1) (d)- which enacts the offence- and which has been applied in this case, points to the offender s conscious mental state when it enacts that whoever knowingly receives or has in possession any major forest produce illicitly removed from a reserved forest would be subjected to the prescribed ..... notification in the gazette, not being below the rank of an assistant conservator of forests (hereinafter referred to as the authorized officer). 13 7. ..... questions a judgment of the kerala high court1 reversing the judgment of the learned sessions judge and consequently, restoring the conviction and sentence (of 3 years imprisonment) for the offence punishable under section 27 of the kerala forest act (hereafter the act ).2. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... (1) notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this chapter or in any other law for the time being in force, where a forest offence is believed to have been committed in respect of the timber or other forest produce which is the property of the state government, the forest officer or the police officer seizing the timber or other forest produce under sub-section (1) of section 52, shall, without any unreasonable delay, produce the same, together with all tools, ropes, chains, boats ..... if under section 52(2), the report of the seizure has been sent to the magistrate, the authorised officer cannot decide upon the commission of a forest offence, as the report of seizure is not before the authorised officer; (iii) since authorised officers cannot apply themselves to whether the seizure was valid, the circumstance of the authorised officer passing an order of confiscation does not ..... authorised officer, upon production before him of property seized or upon receipt of a report about seizure, as the case may be, is satisfied that a forest offence has been committed in respect thereof, he may order in writing, for reasons to be recorded, the confiscation of the forest produce so seized together with all tools, vehicles, boats, chains or any other article used in committing the offence; (ii) for the state of madhya pradesh, mp act 25 of 1983 substituted the original provisions of section 52 of the .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... appearing on behalf of the respondents submitted that the high court has rightly upheld the order of confiscation under section 61a of the act which empowers the authorized officer to confiscate the property in respect of which a forest offence is believed to have been committed.10) he further contended that the authorized officer was well within his powers to order confiscation even under section 69 of the act as section 69 of the act enables him to presume that the ..... , charcoal, firewood or ivory which is the property of the government, or where any such property is produced before an authorised officer under sub-section (1) of this section and he is satisfied that a forest offence has been committed in respect of such property, such authorised officer may, whether or not a prosecution is instituted for the commission of such forest offence, order confiscation of the property so seized together with all tools, ropes, chains, boats, vehicles and cattle used in committing such ..... of the high court.6) learned senior counsel further contended that the high court erred in upholding the order of confiscation under section 61a of the act because the said section authorize the confiscation where forest offence is believed to have been committed in respect of timber, charcoal, firewood or ivory, which is the property of the government. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
..... it is clear from the record that all the forest officers were deployed on patrolling duty to keep a check on the then increasing forest offences. ..... that cart the high court has failed to appreciate another important piece of evidence that when the injuries sustained by the deceased were more serious in nature than the injuries sustained by other two forest officers, which were minor in nature, then the deceased should have been taken to hospital first or atleast along with other two injured ..... court has further failed to appreciate some other important facts which create reasonable suspicion and shadow of doubt in the truthfulness of the prosecution story, namely, instead of confronting with the forest officers, who were on patrolling duty in jeep, the accused-appellants would have tried to conceal their presence either by hiding themselves or by running away. ..... considering some undisputed facts like occurrence of incident at night, at a place with improper lighting and all the accused-appellants were not known to the forest officers, except one present at the place of incident, there should have been tip conducted at the instance of the investigating officer. ..... was conducted by additional sessions judge, dharwad for the offences punishable under sections 302, 324, 353, 379 and 411 of ipc read with section 34 of ipc and section 24(e) of the karnataka forest act. ..... has upheld the acquittal of all the four appellants for the offence punishable under section 24(e) of the karnataka forest act. .....
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