IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.3739 of 2009 GOURI SHANKAR, son of Sri. Darogi Lal Darbey, Resident of C/O- R.Rahman, village-Karnojara, P.S.-Raigani, District-Uttar Dinajpur, presently residing at Ram Mohani Chowk, Gulabbagh, P.S.-Gulabbagh, District-Purnea. …….Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar 2. S.D.O., Sadar, Purnea. 3. Officer-in-Charge, Purnea Sadar, Police Station-Purnea. ……..Respondents. With CWJC No.3924 of 2009 RAVI SHANKAR DARBEY, son of D.L., Darbey, Resident of village- Raiganj, P.S.-Raiganj, District-Uttar Dinajpur, presently residing at Ram Mohani Chowk, Gulabbagh, P.S.-Gulabbagh, District-Purnea. …….Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar 2. S.D.O., Sadar, Purnea. ……..Respondents. With CWJC No.4462 of 2009 GOURI SHANKAR, son of Darogi Lal Darbey, resident of C/o-R. Rahman, Village-Karnojara, P.S.-Raiganj, District-Uttar Dinajpur, presently residing at Ram Mohani Chowk, Gulabbagh, P.S.-Gulabbagh, District-Purnea. …….Petitioner. Versus 1. The State Of Bihar 2. S.D.O., Sadar, Purnea. …….Respondents. ----------- 04. 18.05.2009 These cases have been put up under the heading ‘For Orders” by the Office or seeking extension of time for listing the case for Admission as directed. 2 This is so because this Court had issued separate individual notices to the Sub-Divisional Officer, Purnea for his utter illegal actions and service reports were not received. Learned counsel for the State today has appeared and filed a counter affidavit on behalf of the Sub-Divisional Officer, Purnea pursuant to orders of this Court while issuing notice. There is no point in keeping the matter pending any longer as by order of this Court, the Trucks and goods have already been released to the petitioners. In the counter affidavit filed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, it is stated that the Sub- Divisional Officer is an I.A.S. Officer and this is his first posting as a Sub-Divisional Officer. I regret this is no defence to the illegal act committed by the Officer in wrongly detaining the trucks and the goods. Unfortunately the Officer has taken things too casually. Action of the Officer was transgression of petitioner’s fundamental rights. Actually the manner in which the Sub-Divisional Officer has acted calls for condemnation by this Court. Two Commercial Vehicles were seized on 27.10.2008 with goods loaded thereon. It is only pursuant to orders of this Court that on 17.04.2009 that is almost after six months, they have been 3 released. Seizure was affected by the Sub-Divisional Officer, oblivious of the right which the Officer enjoys. No case whatsoever was lodged, nothing was done but the vehicles were detained for over six months. This is the clear abuse of the authority and power for purposes other than bona fide. Petitioners in all these cases would be entitled to compensation for illegal detention of their trucks and goods quantified of Rs. 50,000/-(fifty thousand) each. State would be at liberty to realize the same from the person who caused the illegal detention or who is responsible for such an illegal action. The compensation must be paid by the Collector, Purnea within a period of one month from the dated of production of the copy of this order before him. With these observations and directions, the writ petition stands disposed of. Shageer (Navaniti Prasad Singh, J)