Mahatma Jyotiba Fule Adiwasi ... vs State Of Maharashtra And Ors.
2007 Latest Caselaw 518 Bom

JUDGMENT

A.B. Chaudhari, J.

1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of parties.

2. On 30-4-2007 Civil Applications No. 2563 of 2007 and 2761 of 2007 for final disposal of writ petition and for giving directions to respondents were on board for hearing. Since Mr. Deopujari, learned A.G.P. has filed reply so also return to the petition, the parties agreed that hearing of the civil applications and also hearing of the main petition itself would take the same time and hence the petition itself should be finally disposed of. In view of the agreement of the parties, I have taken the present writ petition for final disposal.

3. The petitioner-Mahatma Jyotiba Fule Adiwasi Magasvargiya Gruha Nirman Sahakari Sanstha Ltd. has challenged the order dated 25-5-2001 passed by respondent No. 2/Collector, Wardha, by which the Collector refused to grant permission sought by the petitioner for change in allotment of land to the petitioner-society in Survey No. 37 in lieu of the land allotted to it from Survey No. 34. By amending the prayer in the writ petition the petitioner sought approach road to field Survey No. 34 allotted to it from Survey No. 35 by providing 40 ft. approach way.

4. Facts:

The petitioner is a registered co-operative housing society for Scheduled Tribes. The Government of Maharashtra had issued a resolution on 23-6-1989 for revision of Co-operative Housing Scheme for the members of the backward classes on war footing. The said resolution was based upon the report of Sundaram Committee. As per the Government Resolution, the lands for housing was to be given to the housing societies of Scheduled Tribes free of costs and the members were to be provided with necessary financial assistance.

5. The petitioner-society had applied for allotment of land admeasuring about 05,27,000 sq. ft. from Kh. No. 34, area 7.33 hectares situated at Pipri (Meghe), district Wardha, for construction of residential houses for the members of Scheduled Tribes. After following the necessary procedure, order was made by the Collector, Wardha, on 15-6-1998 granting 3.35 hectares of land from Survey No. 34 to the petitioner-society. The Collector had by another order allotted 0.82 acres of land out of the said Survey No. 34 to the police department for construction of police wireless station which was given new Survey No. 34/3 and by one more order granted 1.62 hectares of land out same survey number to the police department for construction of police quarters and that was given new Khasra No. as 34/1. The land allotted to the petitioner-society was given as Kh. No. 34/2. After all these allotments, the real difficulty arose.

6. Since the entire land adjacent to the main road, i.e. Wardha-Arvi road was allotted to the police department from Survey No. 34, the portion of the land allotted to the petitioner was left without any approach road and, as such, the petitioner-society found great difficulty in going ahead with the construction of houses since the portion allotted to it became land-locked. According to the petitioner, while making allotment to the police department from Survey No. 34 adjacent to Wardha-Arvi Road, this aspect about the land locking was not taken into consideration and hence the difficulty arose. It is in this background, an alternate prayer has been made by the petitioner in the present petition for providing approach road to the extent of 40 ft. wide to the land allotted to the petitioner-society from the portion allotted to the police department. In the face of the positive response from the Collector Wardha under reply to C.A. No. 2563/07 for final disposal to the effect that the Collector was ready to consider the difficulty of the petitioner and to provide approach way to the petitioner from Wardha-Arvi road, the petitioner has not pressed its challenge to the order dated 25-5-2001 for exchange of land.

7. Arguments:

Mr. Dhote, learned counsel, for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is satisfied if the alternate relief made by the petitioner in the petition regarding grant of approach road to the piece of land allotted to the petitioner from Wardha-Arvi road is granted by the Collector. He, therefore, submitted that he would not like to press prayer Clause (a) relating to some other land in exchange of the land allotted to the petitioner in view of the sympathetic approach shown by the Collector, Wardha. He submitted that the petitioner-society is a society of the people belonging to Scheduled Tribes and the members of the Society had dreamed of the house of their own which dream has not come true even till this date. The learned Counsel for the petitioner objected to the statement in the reply to C.A. No. 2563/07 in paragraph 2 that the petitioner-society had not even started construction activity over the said land despite the lapse of period of one year and submitted that it was impossible for the members of the Society to make construction in the absence of any approach way from Wardha-Arvi road to the land allotted to the petitioner society, apart from the fact that no financial assistance as mentioned in the Government Resolution dated 23-6-1989 has so far been provided. He accordingly prayed for disposal of this writ petition with appropriate directions.

8. Per contra, Mr. Deopujari, learned A.G.P., submitted that the petitioner never approached the respondents for allotment of land providing approach road, as now sought to be contended in the writ petition and the respondents are even now ready to consider the allotment of an approach road to the petitioner-society, if such an application is made. He also prayed for disposal of writ petition.

9. Consideration:

Having heard the learned Counsel for the respective parties and having considered the object behind issuance of the Government Resolution dated 23-6-1989, I find that paragraphs 12 and 14 from the judgment of Supreme Court in the case of Murlidhar Dayandeo Kesekar v. Vishwanath Pandu Barde reported in 1995 Supp (2) SCC 549 would be of great relevance and the said paragraphs read thus:

Article 21 of the Constitution assures right to life. To make right to life meaningful and effective, this Court put up expansive interpretation and brought within its ambit right to education, health, speedy trial, equal wages for equal work as fundamental rights. Articles 14, 15 and 16 prohibit discrimination and accord equality. The Preamble to the Constitution as a socialist republic visualises to remove economic inequalities and to provide facilities and opportunities for decent standard of living and to protect the economic interest of the weaker segments of the society, in particular, Scheduled Castes, i.e. Dalits and the Scheduled Tribes, i.e. Tribes and to protect them from "all forms of exploitations". Many a day have come and gone after 26-1-1950 but no leaf is turned in the lives of the poor and the gap between the rich and the poor is gradually widening on the brink of being unbridgeable.

Providing adequate means of livelihood for all the citizens and distribution of the material resources of the community for common welfare, enable the poor, the Dalits and Tribes, to fulfil the basic needs to bring about a fundamental change in the structure of the Indian society which was divided by erecting impregnable walls of separation between the people on grounds of caste, sub-caste, creed, religion, race, language and sex. Equality of opportunity and status thereby would become the bedrocks for social integration. Economic empowerment thereby is the foundation to make equality of status, dignity of person and equal opportunity a truism. The core of the commitment of the Constitution to the social revolution through rule of law lies in effectuation of the fundamental rights and directive principles as supplementary and complementary to each other. The Preamble, fundamental rights and directive principles - the trinity - are the conscience of the Constitution. Political democracy has to be stable. Socio-economic democracy must take strong roots and should become a way of life. The State, therefore, is enjoined to provide adequate means of livelihood to the poor, weaker sections of the society, the Dalits and Tribes and to distribute material resources of the community to them for common welfare etc.

10. In the light of the aforesaid pronouncement of law made by the Supreme Court and in the light of the object in issuing the Government Resolution dated 23-6-1989 it appears to me that the Government took up on war footing rehabilitation scheme for construction of houses for backward classes after considering the report of Sundaram Committee. It is unfortunate that though the scheme has been described as war footing rehabilitation scheme, till date the members of Scheduled Tribes of the petitioner-society have not been able to construct their houses due to red tapism. Perusal of the order dated 25-5-2001 made by the Collector, Wardha, shows that a specific difficulty was expressed by the petitioner-society for claiming exchange of land that because of the allotment of front land to the police department out of Survey No. 34 touching Wardha -Arvi road, the petitioner does not have any approach road and, therefore, the petitioner was seeking exchange of land. During the course of enquiry before making of the order dated 25-5-2001 this difficulty of the society about approach way to the land allotted to the petitioner society from Survey No. 34 must have surfaced. However, the Collector has blamed the society for not constructing the houses within one year from the date of allotment of the land and also refused to consider the request for exchange of land on the ground that there is no provision in the Land Revenue Code to do so. In my opinion, when a welfare scheme was floated by the Government for the welfare of the members of the backward classes and in particular Scheduled Tribes, in the light of the law pronounced by the Apex Court stated hereinbefore, the Collector was duty bound to see that the scheme for the members of backward classes, i.e. in this case Scheduled Tribes, which was said to be a war footing rehabilitation scheme was required to be implemented in letter and spirit. The Collector was under obligation to grant approach way to the petitioner-society from the portion of Survey No. 34 which was allotted to the police department abutting Wardha-Arvi road only to the extent of necessary approach road so that the petitioner-society could have started its activity of construction of houses for its members. The Collector has not seriously considered the very object of war footing rehabilitation scheme and instead of allotting the approach way made an order on 25-5-2001 rejecting the request for exchange. At that very moment the Collector, Wardha, ought to have taken the case for allotment of approach way and thus removed the blot of red tapism.

11. In view of the above and in the light of the fact that the construction cost has gone multiple times, I am saddened that the members of Scheduled Tribes of the society will have to bear the extra cost of construction and not only that even the Government of Maharashtra will have to share the financial assistance and extra cost. In my opinion, the whole approach of Collector, Wardha, is not in accordance with the concept of the said Government Resolution. The reply that the petitioner did not even apply for approach road and, therefore, the Collector did not consider the same is, in my opinion, a lame excuse. After all the members of the petitioner-society being Scheduled Tribes are obviously backward and illiterate and at any rate the Collector of the District on behalf of the State has to act like a guardian rather than shooting such type of excuses.

12. To sum up, in the reply at least now the Collector, Wardha, has agreed to consider the request for approach way from out of portion of Survey No. 34 touching Wardha - Arvi road for approaching the piece of land allotted to the petitioner-society.

13. In the result, writ petition is partly allowed. Respondent-Collector Wardha is directed to sympathetically consider the request of the petitioner-society for allotment of approach way to the piece of the land allotted to the petitioner-society from the portion of Survey No. 34 abutting Wardha - Arvi road under the order dated 15-6-1998. The petitioner-society may formally apply to the Collector within two weeks from today for such approach road for registering a case accordingly. The Collector then shall consider the entire matter in the light of the observations made hereinbefore within a period of two months from the date of receipt of writ of this Court. The Collector shall not in the above background insist upon the petitioner-society for construction of houses within one year. The petitioner-society shall include a condition that each member of the petitioner-society constructing the house shall make an arrangement for conservation of rain water upon taking help of Water Conservation Department of the Government of Maharashtra. With these directions, petition disposed of. All civil applications are disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.