Case: State Of Jharkhand  Vs. Govind Singh

no case be supplied by a court of law, for that would be to make laws."23. Keeping in view the aforesaid legal principles the inevitable conclusion is that the High Court was not justified in reading into Section 52 (3) of the Act the power of direct release by imposing fine in lieu of confiscation. 24. The matter can be looked at from another angle. Section 68 of the Act reads as follows: "Section 68- Power to compound offences: (1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, empower a Forest Officer-(a) to accept from any person against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed any forest offence, other than an offence specified in Section 62 or Section 63, a sum of money by way of compensation for the offence which such person is suspected to have committed, and(b) when any property has been seized as liable to confiscation, to release the same on payment of the value thereof as estimated by such officer.(2) On the payment of such sum of money, or such value, or both, as the case may be, to such officer, the suspected person, if in custody, shall be discharged, the property, if any seized shall be released, and no further proceedings shall be taken against such person or property.(3) A Forest-officer shall not be empowered under this section unless he is a Forest-officer of a rank not inferior to that of a Ranger and is in receipt of a monthly salary amounting to at least one hundred rupees, and the sum of money accepted as compensation under clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall in no case exceed the sum of fifty rupees." 25. The said section was also amended by the State amendment. The amended provision reads as follows: "Section 68-Power to compound offences: (1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, empower a Forest Officer-(a) to accept from any person against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed any forest offence, other than an offence specified in clauses (c) and (d) to Section 26, clauses (c) and (d) to Section 33 or Section 62 or Section 63, sum of money by way of compensation for the offence which such person is suspected to have committed, and(b) when any property has been seized as liable to confiscation, to release the same on payment of the value thereof as estimated by such officer.(2) On the payment of such sum of money, or such value, or both, as the case may be, to such officer, the suspected person, if in custody, shall be discharged, the property, if any seized shall be released, and no further proceedings shall be taken against such person or property.(3) A Forest-officer shall not be empowered under this section unless he is a Forest-officer of rank not inferior to that of an Assistant Conservator of Forest." 26. The power to act in terms of Section 68 of the Act is limited to offences other than those specified in clauses (c) and (d) to Section 26, clauses c and (d) to Section 33 or Section 62 or Section 63. Sub-section (1)(b) of Section 68 is also relevant. It provides that where any property has been seized as liable for confiscation, an officer empowered by the State Government has power to release the same on payment of the value thereof as estimated by such officer. The officer has to be empowered in the official gazette by the State Government. To act in terms of the position the value of the property seized or as liable for confiscation has to be estimated. Therefore, on a combined reading of Section 52 and Section 68 of the Act as amended by the Bihar Act, the vehicle as liable for confiscation may be released on payment of the value of the vehicle and not otherwise. This is certainly a discretionary power, exercise of which would depend upon the gravity of the offence. The officer is empowered to release the vehicle on the payment of the value thereof as compensation. This discretion has to be judicially exercised. Section 68 of the Act deals with power to compound offences. It goes without saying that when the discretionary power is conferred, the same has to be exercised in a judicial manner after recording of reasons by the concerned officer as to why the compounding was necessary to be done. In the instant case, learned Single Judge did not refer to the power available under Section 68 of the Act and on the contrary, introduced the concept of reading into Section 52 of the Act, a power to levy fine in lieu of confiscation which is impermissible. In the impugned judgment nowhere the value of the truck which was liable for confiscation was indicated. It appears that the first appellate Court and the revisional authority did not consider it to be a fit case where the vehicle was to be released and were of the considered view that confiscation was warranted. They took specific note of the fact that fake and fabricated documents were produced to justify possession of the seized articles. In any even the respondent had not made any prayer for compounding in terms of Section 68 of the Act. 27. Confiscation in terms of sub-section (3) of Section 52 of the Act is the immediate statutory action which provides that when forest offence as defined in Section 2(3) of the Act is believed to have been committed in respect of the seized vehicle, the authorized officer may confiscate the forest produce and the vehicle involved in the transportation of the forest produce. Foundation for action in terms of Section 52(3) of the Act is the belief entertained by the concerned officer that forest offence has been committed. It is not the value of the forest produce which is relevant, but the value of the article liable for confiscation. In the instant case it is the truck carrying the forest produce. 28.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]Learned Single Judge by the impugned judgment held that though the power to levy fine in lieu of confiscation is not there, same has to be read into the statute to fully effectuate the legislative intent. It was a case of casus omissus.9. The conclusion is clearly erroneous. It is against the settled principles relating to statutoryprinciples of construction - one relating to casus omissus and the other in regard to reading the statute as a whole - appear to be well settled. Under the first principle a casus omissus cannot be supplied by the Court except in the case of clear necessity and when reason for it is found in the four corners of the statute itself but at the same time a casus omissus should not be readily inferred and for that purpose all the parts of a statute or section must be construed together and every clause of a section should be construed with reference to the context and other clauses thereof so that the construction to be put on a particular provision makes a consistent enactment of the whole statute. This would be more so if literal construction of a particular clause leads to manifestly absurd or anomalous results which could not have been intended by the Legislature. "An intention to produce an unreasonable result", said Danackwerts, L.J. in Artemiou vs. Procopiou (1966 1 QB 878), "is not to be imputed to a statute if there is some other construction available". Where to apply words literally would "defeat the obvious intention of the legislature and produce a wholly unreasonable result" we must "do some violence to the words" and so achieve that obvious intention and produce a rational construction. (Per Lord Reid inLuke vs. IRC (1966 AC557) where at p. 577 he also observed: "this is not a new problem, though our standard of drafting is such that it rarely emerges".22. It is then true that, "when the words of a law extend not to an inconvenience rarely happening, but due to those which often happen, it is good reason not to strain the words further than they reach, by saying it is casus omissus, and that the law intended quae frequentius accidunt." "But," on the other hand, "it is no reason, when the words of a law do enough extend to an inconvenience seldom happening, that they should not extend to it as well as if it happened more frequently, because it happens but seldom" (See Fentonvs. Hampton 11 Moore, P.C.A casus omissus ought not to be created by interpretation, save in some case of strong necessity. Where, however a casus omissus does really occur, either through the inadvertence of the legislature, or on the principle quod semel aut bis existit proetereunt legislators, the rule is that the particular case, thus left unprovided for, must be disposed of according to the law as it existed before such statute - Casus omissus et oblivioni datus dispositioni communis juris relinquitur; "a casus omissus," observed Buller, J. in Jones vs. Smart (1 T.R. 52), "can in no case be supplied by a court of law, for that would be to make laws."23. Keeping in view the aforesaid legal principles the inevitable conclusion is that the High Court was not justified in reading into Section 52 (3) of the Act the power of direct release by imposing fine in lieu of confiscation.Confiscation in terms of sub-section (3) of Section 52 of the Act is the immediate statutory action which provides that when forest offence as defined in Section 2(3) of the Act is believed to have been committed in respect of the seized vehicle, the authorized officer may confiscate the forest produce and the vehicle involved in the transportation of the forest produce. Foundation for action in terms of Section 52(3) of the Act is the belief entertained by the concerned officer that forest offence has been committed. It is not the value of the forest produce which is relevant, but the value of the article liable for confiscation. In the instant case it is the truck carrying the forest produce.