Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
SARDA PLYWOOD LTD. AND ANR.
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
DATE OF JUDGMENT09/04/1990
BENCH:
VENKATACHALLIAH, M.N. (J)
BENCH:
VENKATACHALLIAH, M.N. (J)
REDDY, K. JAYACHANDRA (J)
CITATION:
1990 SCR Supl. (3) 6 1991 SCC Supl. (1) 225
JT 1991 (5) 197 1991 SCALE (1)468
ACT:
Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914-- Object and scope
of.
Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914-- Section
3--Restriction on imported articles--Purpose of--Imported
timber for use in plywood manufacture--Whether amenable to
Quarantine regulations under the Notification dated
27.10.1989.
Notification dated 27.10.1989---Clause (1) of para
2---"Plant"-Whether includes timber logs.
Words and Phrases--‘Plant’---’Timber
log’--‘Quantine’---Meaning of.
HEADNOTE:
The petitioners filed a writ petition in the High Court,
challenging the Notification dated 27.10.1989 issued under
the Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914.
Examining the question whether certain logs of timber
imported by the petitioners from foreign countries for use
in the manufacture of plywood were amenable to Quarantine
regulations under the aforesaid statutory notification, the
High Court dismissed the writ petition.
The petitioners flied the Special Leave Petition,
against the High Court’s judgment contending that the im-
ported timber logs were not likely to come into contact with
any crop or plant but were directly removed to the factory
where plywood was manufactured, and there was no possibility
of the insects or the fungus or the pests in them infecting
any plant.
Dismissing the petition, this Court,
HELD: 1. The object of the Destructive Insects and Pests
Act, 1914 is to protect plant-life in India from such alien
insects, fungus and pests which might be introduced into the
country through imported articles contaminated with them or
carried by them. This object is
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sought to be achieved by preventing the entry into the soil
of India, of such potential carriers. The question whether
after such import the insects, fungus, or pests actually
infect plant-life or not is not the decisive factor. The
very existence of a possibility of such infection is suffi-
cient justification. The main purpose is to prevent their
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very entry into India. The need for treatment and the like
envisaged in the notification rightly pre-supposes the
potentiality of the timber logs for carrying those insects
and pests. [11G-H, 12A]
2.1 It is in the public interest that State prohibits or
regulates entry into its territories harmful substances,
impure food, animals or persons having contagious diseases
or articles which are a potential danger to the health,
safety well-being and good morals of the community or the
health of the flora and the fauna. [8F-G]
2.2. The extent of the prohibition or regulation must be
commensurate with a reasonable relation to the object and
should not be unduly restrictive of the citizen’s rights.
[11A]
Encyclopedia Americana (Volume 23); Interstate Barriers
in India and American Constitutional Experience: Lawrence F.
Ebb: Stanford Law Review, Vol. II 1958-59, Referred.
3. The expression "plant" is defined in clause (i) of
para 2 of the Notification, to mean any plant or part there-
of whether living or dead, trees, shrubs, nursery stock and
includes all vegetatively propagated materials. The timber
logs of the kind concerned in the present case fall within
this definition. [11E-F]
JUDGMENT: