PATNA, Dec. 24 -- The Patna High Court last week directed the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police to register an FIR into the affairs of the Excise Department, Muzaffarpur, in connection with the arbitrary auctioning of seized vehicles. The court also held in favour of the petitioner and awarded compensation of Rs.12,12,517, along with interest at the rate of 6% per annum and directed the amount be recovered from the erring officials within six months and action against them be taken. Heading a writ petition, in which the petitioner Sushil Kumar Singh sought that the auction be set aside or he be granted the insured value of Rs.12 lakh, a Division Bench comprising Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Justice Sourendra Pandey on December 18 directed the EOU to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out the investigation in a time-bound manner The petitioner's Scorpio vehicle had been seized in connection with a case registered under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. The petitioner prayed for the constitution of an enquiry into the functioning of the Excise Department, Muzaffarpur, alleging that a racket was operating in the auction of seized vehicles, whereby only a limited group of individuals were able to participate, and underhand dealings were rampant. The HC noted serious discrepancies in the auction process, viz. no bids were invited through public advertisement in any newspaper, constituting a blatant violation of the applicable statutory rules, and abserved that the confiscation and auction of vehicles had shown complete disregard for the rule of law. "The role of authorities involved and the connections of the auction purchasers are required to be verified and gone into. We have no difficulty in arriving on an irresistible conclusion that the authorities involved in the confiscation and auction of vehicles have not shown any respect for the rule of law," the bench observed. The court further said that "whether they are negligent, not competent or are acting for extraneous consideration is a question and any of these may be possible, as it is difficult to take a view that senior officers would not be aware of legal provisions". In March this year also, the HC had ordered the state government to deposit a sum of Rs. 21 lakhs in the Registry of the court within a period of eight weeks from the date of order in a case involving much lower valuation of a vehicle seized ubder the prohibition law despite more than 10 times higher insurance value and its subsequent confiscation and auction at throw away price. Maintaining that every step reveals lapses on the part of the Excise Officials as well as Revenue Officials, the then bench of Justices PB Bajanthri and Justice Alok Kumar Sinha had alsk ordered a departmental inquiry against the erring officials and charges be framed for alleged loss caused to the State exchequer to the tune of Rs 19 lakh as the insurance value of the sized truck was Rs 21-lakh and it was auctioned for a mere Rs 2-lakh. In that case also, the court had observed that the owner of the vehicle was not even issued personal notice relating to confiscation proceedings proposed for auction and date of auction and other details....