Aureen Rodrigues and Others vs The State of Karnataka and Others

Anand Byrareddy, J.—The petitioner is before this court for the third time. It transpires that the petitioners are the absolute owners of the land bearing Sy. Nos. 192/1, 193/1 and 193/2 of Mekoor Hoskeri Village, Ammathi Hobli, Virajpet Taluk, Kodagu district. They have purchased the land in the year 1974 and have grown coffee in the entire land. The estate is known as ''Eliza Estate''. The petitioners have planted shade trees comprising of hardwood, softwood and rosewood. Since the trees were over grown the petitioners had made an application to the third respondent in the year 2011 seeking permission to remove the excess shade trees from the estate, on the advise of the Coffee Board, and in order to get a better yield. An order was passed in the year 2013 after following the formalities and a list of enumerated rosewood trees were furnished as per Annexure A.

The Range Forest Officer is said to have submitted a report to the third respondent and has stated that some portions of land bearing Sy. No. 193/1 was also included and some of the trees were marked and cut which were standing in the said land. Another report is said to have been submitted in the year 2013 on identical terms. On the basis of the said report the third respondent had issued transport passes and the timber was transported to the Government depot. However, no action was carried out in view of objections having been raised as to the ownership of the timber which was cut and removed from land bearing Sy. No. 192/1. In view of the auction not having been conducted the petitioner had approached this court by way of writ petition in W.P. No. 16720-16723/2014. This court had allowed the writ petition, by an order dated 27.01.2015, and directed the third respondent to auction the timber and also to dispose of the appeal said to have been filed by the Tahsildar questioning the title of the petitioner to the said property. The petitioners thereafter had made an application seeking the details of the amount realized from the auction of the timber from each survey number and also sought for deposit of the entire amount of auction sale, in a Fixed Deposit in a Nationalized Bank. As no action was taken in this regard yet another writ petition in WP Nos. 41771-774/2015 was filed seeking a direction to deposit the amount. This court by its order dated 30.09.2015 had directed the respondents to deposit the money realized out of the auction of the rosewood trees from land bearing Sy. No. 192/1. Even though there was a direction issued to dispose of the timber from land bearing Sy. No. 192/1 the respondents did not choose to do so. Therefore, the petitioner is before this court seeking a direction to the third respondent to dispose of the entire rosewood transported from the estate of the petitioners and it is further stated that apart from the respondents not having completed the auction of the timber that was transported there are billets and logs and roots remaining on the land and are subject to deterioration and theft. Therefore the petitioners have made several requests to the respondents to permit them to transport the said timber such as roots, logs and billets lying on their land, however, no action has been taken and hence the petitioners are before this court for the third time.

It is not in dispute that an application seeking transportation of the said wood which is lying on their estate has been made as early in the year 2013. Since no further action is taken, it is appropriate that the respondent is directed to issue such permission to transport the wood and thereafter conduct an auction of the timber already transported and the timber which is yet to be transported and further in so far as the direction to deposit the amount recovered by way of auction has not been complied with till date. The respondents are therefore directed to deposit that amount in a nationalized bank forthwith, in any event the amount shall be deposited within a period of one week and the further auction to be conducted in respect of the timber already transported and the timber to be transported is also be deposited alongwith the above said deposit, in the joint names of the petitioners and the third respondent.

The Government Advocate is permitted to file her memo of appearance within two weeks.