Madhya Pradesh High Court
Dinkar Prasad Tiwari vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 3 August, 2021
Author: Chief Justice
WP-13612-2021
1
The High Court Of Madhya Pradesh
Writ Petition No.13612/2021
(Dinkar Prasad Tiwari Vs. State of M.P. and others)
Jabalpur, Dated :03.08.2021
Shri Bhupendra Shukla, Advocate for the petitioner.
Shri Ashish Anand Bernard, Deputy Advocate General for the
respondents/State.
This writ petition in the form of Public Interest Litigation has
been filed by petitioner-Dinkar Prasad Tiwari seeking direction to
respondent-authorities for removal of encroachment made by
respondent No.5 on the Government land. It is contended that so far
no action has been taken by the government authorities to free the
land bearing Khasra No.4/2 and Khasra No.226, total area 2.769
Hectares, situated at Village Katiyakala, Tehsil Maihar, District Satna
from encroachment by the private respondent.
This Court in W.P.No.7865/2021 (Gram Panchayat Dhooma Vs.
State of Madhya Pradesh and others, order dated 09.06.2021)
considering that large number of petitions of similar nature, with
allegations of encroachment over the 'nistar land'/'charnoi'/
'gocher'/'pasture' land/land of 'pond', 'talab'/'river'/'river bed'/'public
way'/'shamshan'/'kabristan' etc. passed the following order :-
"5. This Court is inundated with large number of writ petitions,
styled as public interest litigation, from almost all the Districts of
the State, with allegations of encroachment over the 'nistar land' /
'charnoi' /'gocher' / 'pasture land' / land of 'pond',
'talab'/'river'/'river bed'/'public way'/'shamshan'/'kabristan' etc. In
all such petitions, common allegation is that despite repeated
complaints / representations to the concerned revenue officers,
no steps are taken by them to remove the encroachment. This
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results in number of writ petitions being filed by the
complainants / representationists before this Court. This Court
has been passing orders in such matters requiring the respective
District Collectors and other revenue authorities to examine the
factual content of the allegations and take steps to remove the
encroachments so as to secure such land.
6. In order therefore to provide a State wide solution to this
ever persisting problem, we deem it appropriate to direct the
Chief Secretary of the State to devise a permanent mechanism,
which should be functional in every district of the State where
the concerned District Collector should be required to
periodically notify for the information of the general public to
lodge the complaints / representations with regard to such
encroachments with a specially designated Public Land
Protection Cell (for short 'PLPC') for rural areas. The PLPC
should be headed by District Collector and function under his
direction and supervision with an officer of the rank of Tehsildar
as its Member Secretary and such other Officers as its Members
as the Government may deem fit to nominate. The PLPC shall
get such complaints / representations enquired into by deputing
concerned Sub Divisional Officer / Tehsildar / Naib Tehsildar so
as to verify whether or not such encroachments have actually
taken place on public land. If the allegations are found to be
substantiated, appropriate steps in accordance with law be
immediately taken for removal of the encroachments and
appropriate penal action be also taken against the trespassers.
The complaints / representations received in the PLPC should be
decided by passing speaking order, informing the respective
complainant / representationist about the action taken. This
would obviate the necessity of such complainants /
representationists approaching this Court directly by way of
public interest litigation. If this permanent mechanism is put in
place, this Court would not be required to directly entertain such
public interest litigation and would do so only in the event of
inaction on the part of the concerned PLPC.
7. The PLPC aforementioned shall also keep in view the
guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh &
Others Vs. State of Punjab & Others, (2011) 11 SCC 396
wherein all the State Governments of the country have been
directed to prepare scheme for eviction of illegal / unauthorised
occupants of the Gram Sabha / Gram Panchayat / Poramboke /
Shamlat land which should then be restored to the Gram Sabha /
Gram Panchayat for the common use of residents of the village.
The said scheme should provide for the speedy eviction of such
illegal occupants, after giving them a show cause notice and a
brief hearing. The Supreme Court further held therein that long
duration of the illegal encroachment / occupation of land or huge
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expenditure in making construction thereon or political
connections of trespassers are no justification for regularising
such illegal occupation. Regularisation should be permitted only
in exceptional cases where lease has been granted under some
government notification e.g. to landless labourers or members of
Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes or where there is already a
school, hospital, dispensary, 'shamshan', 'kabristan' or other
public utility of the like nature on the land. Observations of the
Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh (supra) thus leaves no manner of
doubt that removal of encroachment on all such land is a rule
and regularisation an exception and that too in extremely limited
number of cases, which only the Government can do by
appropriate notification and no other authority.
8. A copy of this order be forwarded to the Chief Secretary of
the State of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal for issuance of necessary
notification for notifying the permanent body designated as
Public Land Protection Cell (PLPC) in every District with the
District Collector as its head and a Tehsildar as its Member
Secretary, apart from other revenue officers as the Members.
This should be given due publicity for information of all the
citizens that complaint with regard to encroachment over public
land in the rural areas can be made to such authorities which
shall be responsible for causing an enquiry into such complaint
to be made and taking expeditious action for removal of
encroachments so as to protect the public land."
In view of the above, we require the petitioner to approach
respondent No.2- Collector, District Satna by means of a
comprehensive representation, who shall have caused in the matter in
terms of the above judgment so as to get the land freed from the
encroachment in compliance of this order within three months after
providing opportunity of hearing to private respondent.
Petition is accordingly disposed of.
(Mohammad Rafiq) (Vijay Kumar Shukla)
Chief Justice Judge
C.
Digitally signed by
CHRISTOPHER PHILIP
Date: 2021.08.04
12:20:24 +05'30'
