'Judicial magistrates to take call on seized vehicles till spl courts'

The vacation bench comprising Justices S Vaidyanathan and Subramonium Prasad, was passing orders on a plea seeking to direct the Sub Collector, Vriddhachalam to release the bullock cart, which was seized by the Inspector of Police, Vriddhachalam, alleged to be involved in the illegal transportation of sand. "Taking note of the fact that special courts have not yet been constituted in terms of the order of the Madurai bench dated October 29, 2018, this court directs the Judicial Magistrate concerned to consider the request for the release of the vehicle in question and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law at the earliest point of time after hearing the parties," the bench said.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court while passing orders on such vehicles seized for illegal transportation, had held that the lorry owners will have to deposit Rs 50,000 before the tahsildar concerned as non-refundable deposit, so that the concerned authority can consider the request of the petitioners of releasing the seized vehicles.

Thereafter, in a second order passed, the bench held that as far as seized vehicles are concerned, they shall be produced before the concerned Magistrate Court by the revenue authorities at the time of filing their respective complaints and that any application for release of vehicle can only be filed before the special court.

However, the counsels appearing on either side submitted that the special court has not been constituted and that the request made by one of the vehicle owners was rejected by the Judicial Magistrate, Tiruvottiyur on the ground that the court has no jurisdiction and that they have to approach the special court. Based on this, the bench while directing the jurisdictional court to decide the matter as expeditiously as possible, clarified that the above condition/concession shall be effective only till the constitution of the special courts.