Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur

Nakshatra Singh vs State Of Rajasthan on 18 January, 2022

Bench: Sandeep Mehta, Vinod Kumar Bharwani

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT JODHPUR D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 897/2022

1. Nakshatra Singh S/o Hamir Singh, Aged About 67 Years, Near Bahadur Shastri School, Dhanak Mohalla, Ward No. 9, Raisinghnagar, District Sri Ganganagar (Raj.).

2. Ashok Kumar Mundra S/o Shri Manak Chand, Aged About 62 Years, Old Ward No. 17, (New 22), Near The House Of Doctor Dp. Gupta, Raisinghnagar, District Sri Ganganagar (Raj.).

----Petitioners Versus

1. State Of Rajasthan, Through Secretary, Local Self Government, Secretariat, Jaipur (Raj.).

2. Sub Divisional Officer, Raisinghnagar, District Sri Ganganagar (Raj.).

3. Chairman, Municipal Board, Raisinghnagar, District Sri Ganganagar (Raj.).

4. Executive Officer, Municipal Board, Municipality, Raisinghnagar, District Sri Ganganagar (Raj.).

5. Chief Town Planner, Town Planning Department, Government Of Rajasthan, J.l.n. Marg, Jaipur (Raj.).

6. Town Planning Officer, Town Planning Department, Government Of Rajasthan, Bikaner.

                                                                   ----Respondents




For Petitioner(s)           :     Mr. Rajendra Kumar Soni through VC
For Respondent(s)           :     -



         HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANDEEP MEHTA

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VINOD KUMAR BHARWANI

Order

18/01/2022

The petitioners have approached this Court by way of this writ

petition (PIL) with the following prayers:-

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"It is, therefore, most humbly and respectfully prayed by the humble petitioners, before your kind Lordships that; this writ petition (P.I.L.) filed by the petitioners, may kindly be allowed with cost and:-

(a) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents Authorities may kindly be directed to remove the illegal encroachments from the land of roads of Khancha Bhumi in entire town, not allotted to encroachers on Warehouse road, Railway Godown to Gatyanarayan Temple road, Bhadbunja Bazar parking, almost all the parks, Cattle Pond, public Sarai of the Raisinghnagar town etc. without any further delay.

(b) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents Authorities may kindly be directed to remove the encroachments of Bhadbunja Bazar and cancel the pattas issues by Municipality on parking land

(c) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents Authorities may kindly be directed to directed municipality not to give permission of construction or Sale of Khacha Bhumi to any encroacher

(d) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents Authorities may kindly be directed to remove encroachment made by Municipality itself in the various places of Raisinghnagar Town"

Having heard and considered the submissions advanced at Bar

and having gone through the material available on record, we are of

the firm view that the petitioners have available to them a suitable

remedy for ventilating their grievances by virtue of the Division

Bench Judgment of this Court in the case of Jagdish Prasad Meena &

Ors. Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. passed in D.B. Civil Writ Petition

(PIL) No.10819/2018 decided on 30.01.2019 wherein this Court

directed as below:-

"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

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of encroachment over the pasture land/ land of 'johad', '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 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 to examine the factual content of the allegations and take steps to remove the encroachments so as to secure such land.

In order therefore to provide a pan-Rajasthan 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 operational 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. The PLPC shall get such complaints/representations enquired into by deputing concerned Sub DivisionalOfficer/Tehsildar/Naib Tehsildar so as to verify whether or not such encroachments have actually taken place on such 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

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this practice is put in place, this Court would not be inclined to directly entertain such public interest litigation or would do so only in the event of inaction on the part of the concerned PLPC. 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 396wherein all the State Governments of the country were directed that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorised occupants of the Gram Sabha/GramPanchayat/Poramboke/ Shamlat land and the same must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village. The said scheme should provide for the speedy eviction of such illegal occupants, after giving them a showcause notice and a brief hearing. It was further held therein that long duration of the illegal encroachment/occupation of land or huge 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.

Thus, the petitioners are relegated to submit a representation

to the District Collector concerned, who shall assign the matter to

the PLPC constituted under the directions of this Court.

The PLPC shall have a thorough enquiry conducted into the

representation of the petitioners in light of the directions given by

this Court in the case of Jagdish Prasad Meena (Supra) and decide the

same within a period of three months from the date of submission

thereof.

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In case, any adverse order is passed, the petitioners shall be at

liberty to challenge the same as per law.

The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms.