THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA WRIT PETITION No.30800 of 1997 Dated: 12.02.2007 Between: M. Suresh. … PETITIONER AND The Conservator of Forests, Hyderabad, and another. …RESPONDENTS THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA WRIT PETITION No.30800 of 1997 ORDER: The petitioner approached this Court and ﬁled the present writ petition with the following prayer: “For the reasons stated in the aﬃdavit ﬁled herewith, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue an appropriate Writ, Order or direction, preferably one in the nature of Writ of Certiorari, calling for the records relating to the impugned order of the 1st Respondent herein in his Proceedings – Ref.No.8959/92/M5, dated 10-9-1997, directing the Petitioner herein to pay the compounding fee of Rs.36,000/- and quash the same; and pass such other or further orders as are necessary.” Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Forests. It is the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner never gave any compounding statement and basing on the assurance given by the respondent authorities, he only signed on some blank papers and that probably the respondent authorities might have ﬁlled those papers and used the same to state that the petitioner has given compounding statement. The counter-aﬃdavit as well as the impugned order refers to the compounding statement given by the petitioner. This Court cannot go into the aspect as to whether the said compounding statement was given voluntarily or is a fabricated one. Accordingly, I see no merits in the writ petition. However, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, the amount of compounding fee of Rs.36,000/- (Rupees thirty six thousand only) is reduced to Rs.15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand). The writ petition, with the above observations, is accordingly dismissed. No costs. _________________________ (GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA, J) 12th February, 2007. ghn