IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTY NINTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH and THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE P.SWAROOP REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 6192 of 1998 Between: J.Upender, S/o Dargaiah, aged about 32 years, Occ: Business, R/o Khammam, Khammam District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1. The Commissioner of Prohibition & Excise, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 2. The Dy.commissioner of Prohibition & Excise, Warangal Division, at Warangal. 3. The Sub-Inspector of police, Khammam II Town Police Station, Khammam. .....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 particularly one in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the first respondent in dismissing the appeal without giving an opportunity to the petitioner vide proceedings No.Cr.No.3988/DPE/97/B2, dated 26.12.1997 as bad, arbitrary, contrary to law and violative of principles of natural justice and to pass such other order. Counsel for the Petitioner: SRI.C.DAMODAR REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR PROHIBITION & EXCISE The Court made the following: THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH & THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.SWAROOP REDDY WRIT PETITION No.6192 OF 1998 ORDER: (Per Sri Justice V.Eswaraiah). The writ petition is filed by the petitioner seeking to Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the first respondent in dismissing the appeal without giving an opportunity of being heard to the petitioner, vide proceedings No.Cr.No.3988/DPE/97/B2, dated 26.12.1997 as bad, arbitrary, contrary to law. The case of the petitioner is that he is the owner of the “Yamaha” Motorcycle bearing No.AP 20-6990, and while so, the vehicle was seized from the custody of his friends Vankayalapati Saji Rao and Talluri Ravi, having found that they were illicitly transporting 23 Full bottles of prohibited Indian Made Liquor and accordingly, Cr.No.13 of 1997 was registered against the said persons and confiscated proceedings have been initiated. It is the case of the petitioner that he is not an accused person and he has no knowledge about the said possession of prohibited Indian Made Liquor by the accused persons who have made use of his vehicle. However, it is stated that the Deputy Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise passed orders under Section 13 of the A.P.Prohibition Act confiscating the said vehicle, which was confirmed by the Commissioner, Prohibition & Excise by order dated 26.12.1997. It is stated that the value of the said vehicle itself was Rs.5,000/- and therefore on furnishing the bank guarantee for Rs.5,000/- the vehicle was released. The said order is questioned in this writ petition. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that batch of writ petitions relating to the consequential proceedings are referred to the Full Bench and are pending. However, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that as the value of the confiscated vehicle itself is Rs.5,000/-, he is accepting to forego 50% of the deposited amount towards value of vehicle. In the circumstances, considering the triviality nature of the property involved, without going into the merits of the case, and as the learned counsel for the petitioner agreed to forego 50% of the deposited amount, we dispose of this writ petition, with a direction that 50% of the deposited amount shall be returned to the petitioner and the remaining 50% of the deposited amount shall be confiscated to State. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of. ___________________ V.ESWARAIAH,J ________________________ P.SWAROOP REDDY,J 29th June, 2009. Ivd/Dsr