CWP No.28 of 2010 -1- IN TH E HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.28 of 2010 Date of decision:October 18, 2011 Jai Gopal Dhawan and another ...Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV NARAIN RAINA Present: Mr. Vishal Goel, Advocate, for Mr. P.K.Gupta, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. Suvir Sehgal, Addl. A.G., Punjab. 1. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? ***** M.M.KUMAR, ACJ. 1. The instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution as public interest litigation prays for issuance of direction to Sr. Superintendent of Police, Hoshiarpur and Station House Officer, P.S. Sadar, Hoshiarpur respectively to register an FIR against respondent Nos.4 to 6 for commission of various offences under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 406 and 120-B IPC and hand over the investigation of the matter to Central Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, Chandigarh (for brevity `CBI'). Further prayer has also been made for issuance of CWP No.28 of 2010 -2- direction to respondent-State of Punjab to get the matter investigated independently from some higher rank officer at its own level for the various offences alllegedly committed by respondent Nos.4 to 6. The basic allegation levelled in the petition is that respondent No.4 M/s G.I.M.P.L. through its Director respondent No.5 and others have approached the various villagers in the State of Punjab for entering into an agreement with them for raising up the production of potatoes and special wheat qualities. According to Organic Agriculture System, some of the agreements, which have been entered into have been placed on record (P-1 and P-2). Those agreements have been duly signed by the agriculturists on the one side and the Director of the aforesaid company on the other side. The agreements have been duly witnessed. According to the petitioners, there are a large number of such agreements especially in the Districts Hoshiarpur, Nawanshar, Jalandhar and even other districts. It was given out by the respondents in the aforesaid agreements that the farmers would be supplied with special quality of seeds of wheat/potatoes. The agriculture produce/horticulture produce were to be purchased by the Company- respondent No.4. It was also stated that the crop of wheat/potatoes was to be grown by organic agriculture system and the medicines/ fertilizers/seeds necessary for the aforesaid purpose were to be provided by respondent No.4 and its associates i.e. respondent nos.5 and 6. In this manner, agriculturists in the State of Punjab fell to their net and paid huge amount in advance as is evident from the receipt issued by respondent No.4 and its associates (P-3 and P-4). CWP No.28 of 2010 -3- 2. In the reply filed by the Chief Agriculture Officer, Hoshiarpur- respondent No.7, a report of the Fertilizer Inspector has been attached. According to the report, the Fertilizer Inspector has found that the busting fertilizer mud was present in separate 115 bags each containing 50 kgs and 34 bags each containing 5 kgs at the spot from the company and District Manager Subhash Soni son of Sewa Lal Soni R/o 1037 Sector 15-B, Chandigarh and Sanjiv Kumar son of J.P.Shukla R/o Nehru Nagar, Rewa (MP) were also present. They were asked to show the licence for selling live fertilizer. No satisfactory answer was given nor they were able to produce the licence at the spot regarding the pressed mud or Hamira of busting land containing in 15 bags each containing 50 kgs and 34 bags each containing 5 kgs. 3. We have heard learned counsel for the parties. Mr. Suvir Sehgal, learned Addl. A.G., Punjab has stated that on 11.03.2008, the Government of India had sent a letter to Secretaries of all the Agriculture Department of various States suggesting that the Fertilizer Control Order for organic fertilizer and bio fertilizer be put on hold till further directions are issued. However, there is nothing in the Fertilizer Control Order which have gone to the extent of showing that any dealer is permitted to sell live fertilizer without a valid permit. There are categorical findings recorded in the report of the Fertilizer Inspector that no licence was produced. If that be so then respondent-State is obliged to consider the material on record for referring the matter to the criminal court either by filing a complaint as per provision of law or by filing an FIR. It is made clear that the FIR or the complaint may not necessarily be confined to CWP No.28 of 2010 -4- violation of Fertilizer Control Order or non-possession of permit. The other allegations made in this petition are also required to be considered, which may involve the violation of various provisions of IPC. 4. The needful shall be done with a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The petition stands disposed of. The action taken report be also placed on the record of this case. (M.M.KUMAR) ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE OCTOBER 18, 2000 (RAJIV NARAIN RAINA) Atul/vinod* JUDGE