ORDER
1. This petition is filed under Article 226 of Constitution of India to declare the action of the fourth respondent herein in seizing the text books belonging to the petitioner on 1-7-95 and 10-7-95 as illegal and consequently direct respondents 1 to 4 to release all the books forthwith.
2. The writ affidavit filed by the petitioners shows that they are book sellers at Narsaraopet in Guntur District and that in the raid conducted bv the respondents on 1-7-1995 and 10-7-1995 the text books belonging to the petitioner were seized and no further action was taken by the respondents to prosecute the petitioners or otherwise.
3. The grievance of the petitioners is that there is no legal restriction for a
private book seller as regards the sale of text books and that it is not the case of the respondents that books arc being sold at higher rates.
4. The learned Counsel for the petitioners drew my attention to a similar situation which arose in Nalgonda District. It appears that is that matter the Tahsildar wrote a letter to the Joint Collector that certain text books were seized by the Revenue Divisional Officer and after some correspondence between the Tahsildar and the Joint Collector, the Tahsildar had informed the Joint Collector that selling of text books published by the Government does not come under the purview of Essential Commodities Act, on the basis of which the Joint Collector directed the release of books.
5. Notice before admission was ordered in this case on 24-10-1995 and thereafter the matter underwent four adjournments for filing counter and setting necessary instructions.
6. Heard the learned Government Pleader for Revenue.
7. The learned Government Pleader could not enlighten this Court on the point whether selling of Government text books amounts to breach of any Law. In these circumstances, this Court finds that no offence is disclosed as against the petitioner and hence directs the respondents to release the books seized by them from the petitioners on 1-7-95 and 10-7-95 forthwith.
8. With the above direction the writ petition is disposed of at the admission stage.
