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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 7 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: