IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY SECOND DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 24809 of 2005 Between: Lingareddy Srinivas, S/o. Venkateswara Rao, R/o. 2-41, Andhra Bank Street, T. Narasapuram (V), T Narasapuram (M), West Godavari District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Sub Inspector of Police, VCCS Department, Eluru, West Godavari District. 2 The Joint Collector, West Godavari, Eluru R2 is impleaded as per court order dt. 20-12-2005 in WPMP 34361 of 2005 .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Certiorari calling for entire records connected to the order dt. 4-8-2001 in ROC No. CSI/180/ECA/2000 from the ﬁle of Joint Collector, West Godavari, Eluru as conﬁrmed by the order, dt. 29-11- 2004 in CMA No. 69 of 2001 on the ﬁle of Principal District Judge, West Godavari, Eluru, examine the same and declare the same as illegal, illegular, and initiated by non-exercise of jurisdiction and violative of provisions of Essential Commodities Act and the rules and regulations framed there under and oﬀends Art. 14, 21 and 300 A of the conﬁscated amount of the petitioner with such reasonable intersts of justice and pass such other orders or order as this Hon'ble Corut may deem ﬁt and proper in the circumstances of the case Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.NIMMAGADDA SATYANARAYANA Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following Order: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.24809 of 2005 ORDER: The petitioner is resident of T Narasapuram Village, T Narasapuram Mandal, West Godavari District. He is allegedly owns land to an extent of Acs.29.40 and his father Acs.19.67. On 19.12.2000 ﬁrst respondent surprised the house of the petitioner and found fertilizers/pesticides stocks of diﬀerent varieties worth Rs.69,410/-. A case was registered against the petitioner and report was sent to the Joint Collector, second respondent herein, who initiated action under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (EC Act, for brevity) and the Fertilizers (Control) Order, 1985. After receiving show cause notice under Section 6-B of EC Act, the petitioner submitted explanation. His plea was that he does not require any licence as he stored fertilizers/pesticides/insecticides for collective use of ryots including himself. After considering the explanation, second respondent passed orders on 04.08.2001 concluding that the petitioner contravened Clauses 1, 3, 4 and 35 of the Fertilizers (Control) Order, 1985, Clauses 3 and 8 of the Fertilizers (DSD) Order, 1976, Clause 3 of the Insecticides Act, 1968, Conditions 1, 2 and 3 of the Insecticides Act, 1968 and Rules, 1971 read with Section 7 of EC Act. After recording such ﬁnding the Joint Collector ordered conﬁscation of entire stock to the Government. Aggrieved by the order of the Joint Collector, the petitioner preferred an appeal under Section 6-C of EC Act before the Court of the District Judge, Eluru, West Godavari District. The same being C.M.A.No.69 of 2001 was dismissed on 29.11.2004, aggrieved by which instant writ petition is ﬁled seeking a writ of Certiorari. The main contention made by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner owns Acs.29.40, his father owns Acs.19.67 and neighbouring farmers own Acs.17.24 and that the petitioner purchased fertilizers/pesticides for collective use by all of them. Therefore, no licence is required and the order of conﬁscation passed by the Joint Collector as conﬁrmed by the District Court is unsustainable. The writ petition is for a writ of Certiorari. Therefore, unless and until an error of jurisdiction or error within the exercise of jurisdiction is pleaded and demonstrated, the writ as prayed for cannot be issued. First respondent inspected the petitioner’s premises on 19.12.2000. Ordinarily no agricultural season would commence in December, 2000, in West Godavari District, and therefore, it is rather surprising that the petitioner was storing not one variety but diﬀerent varieties of diﬀerent quantities of fertilizers/insecticides. His plea that it was meant for his own use cannot be accepted. From the factual background a reasonable inference can be drawn that the petitioner was indeed indulging in clandestine business in unauthorized occupation of fertilizers/insecticides without proper licence under relevant Act and relevant Control Order. In that view of the matter, this Court does not ﬁnd any error apparent on the face of record. The impugned order does not suﬀer from any error. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed with costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 22nd October, 2008 GHN To 1 Sub Inspector of Police, VCCS Department, Eluru, West Godavari District. 2 The Joint Collector, West Godavari, Eluru 3 2CCs to GP for Civil Supplies 4 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RLD}