Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sk Ushiar Rahaman @ Sk Usair ... vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 18 May, 2023
13. 18.05.2023
Court No.6
Tanmoy Ghosh
MAT 467 of 2023
Sk Ushiar Rahaman @ Sk Usair Rahaman
-Versus-
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
With
IA No: CAN/2/2023
Mr. Ratul Biswas, Adv.,
Mr. Kaushik Chowdhury, Adv.,
Ms. Soumoyadipa Kanu, Adv.
...for the appellant.
Mr. Srinath Singha Roy, Adv.
...for the State.
Mr. Bhaskar Chandra Manna, Adv.
...for the respondent nos.11-12/
writ petitioners.
By consent of the parties, the appeal and the
connected application are taken up together for hearing.
A judgment and order dated February 17, 2020,
whereby the writ petition of the respondent nos.11 and
12 herein, being W.P. 15046(W) of 2019, was disposed
of, is under challenge in this appeal at the instance of
the respondent no.12 in the writ petition.
The writ petitioners approached the learned Single
Judge with the grievance that the present appellant had
encroached on the land of the writ petitioners and had
made unauthorized construction thereon.
It appears that a report had been called for from the
concerned Block Land and Land Reforms Officer
(BL&LRO) which was filed before the learned Single
Judge. The learned Single Judge disposed of the writ
petition by passing the following order:-
"Mr. Manna, learned advocate appears on behalf of the
petitioners and submits, there has been encroachment upon his
clients' property, by respondent no.12. Mr. Singh Roy, learned
advocate appears on behalf of the State and hands up his
instructions dated 15th January, 2020, enclosing a map, in
which some encroachment is reported. Ms. Roy, learned
advocate appears on behalf of respondent no. 12 and prays for
adjournment.
Respondent no. 7 is directed to initiate appropriate
proceeding for removal of the encroachment, detected by Block
Land and Land Reforms Officer. Mr. Singh Roy has made over
copy of enquiry report sent under cover of said memo dated 15th
January, 2020, to Ms. Roy. Petitioners will serve this order
along with the enquiry report upon respondent no. 7. Said
respondent will comply within six weeks from date of
communication of this order."
Being aggrieved, the respondent no.12 in the writ
petition has come up by way of the present appeal.
We have heard learned Counsel for the parties at
length. Whether or not the present appellant has
encroached on the land of the writ petitioners can only
be decided by a competent civil forum and neither by the
Panchayat, nor by anybody else in the Administration.
Hence, we grant liberty to the writ petitioners to
approach the competent civil forum for ventilating their
grievance regarding encroachment on their land by the
present appellant.
Insofar as the allegation of unauthorized
construction is concerned, the concerned Panchayat
Pradhan being the respondent no.7 in this appeal, is
directed to consider the grievance of the writ petitioners
to the effect that the appellant herein has made
construction without obtaining requisite sanction. The
Pradhan shall afford opportunity of hearing to all
concerned parties before coming to a decision in terms of
the Scheme of Section 23 of the West Bengal Panchayat
Act, 1973. Let the exercise be completed by the Pradhan
within three (3) months from the date of communication
of this order to him.
The order under appeal thus stands set aside.
The appeal being MAT 467 of 2023 and the
connected application being IA No: CAN/2/2023 are
disposed of.
Let urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if
applied for, be made available to the parties upon
compliance with all requisite formalities.
(Arijit Banerjee, J.)
(Apurba Sinha Ray, J.)
