Action of sealing PRP office not sustainable:Madras High Court

Disposing of a plea filed by the firm's director P Suresh Kumar, Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma asked the officials to permit the petitioner to continue quarry operations over the leased property strictly in terms of the lease.

The court directed the petitioner to depute two persons along with an expert on November 7 for handing over computers, hard discs and documents available in the sealed building, after transferring the data from computers and making copies of documents, which are required for running of business.

The judge made it clear that the petitioner will be entitled to get copies of the documents lying within the premises and permit the investigating officer to take away the material which are required for probe.

 

The process should be completed in three days, he said.

Holding that the investigating officer should permit the petitioner to carry on with the business, the court quashed the officer's order restraining the export and import operations with a direction to officials not to interfere in the matter on valid documents.

The judge said officials could take appropriate action by following due process of law under The Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957, if there was violation.

The only provision with regard to seizure of property was under of CrPC, which was not applicable to PRP cases. Even otherwise, the procedure laid down in CrPC was also not followed, the judge said.

The freezing of accounts of the petitioner and stopping quarry operations cannot be sustained in law as well, the judge said, asking officials to release the bank accounts and allow the petitioner to carry on his business.

At the same time, the court cannot lose sight of the fact that there were number of cases registered against the partners of the petitioner firm, and they were facing serious allegations of illegal mining worth of crores of rupees, the judge said. (More)