Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur
Fateh Singh vs State Of Rajasthan ... on 19 April, 2023
Bench: Pushpendra Singh Bhati, Praveer Bhatnagar
[2023/RJJD/010720]
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT
JODHPUR
D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 5220/2023
Fateh Singh S/o Shri Bheru Singh, Aged About 31 Years, By
Caste Rajput, R/o Village Badiyar, Tehsil Mavli, District Udaipur,
Rajasthan.
----Petitioner
Versus
1. State Of Rajasthan, Through The Secretary, Department
Of Revenue, Secretariat, Jaipur, Rajasthan.
2. The District Collector, Udaipur, Rajasthan.
3. The Tehsildar, Mavli, District Udaipur, Rajasthan.
4. The Gram Panchayat Badiyar, Tehsil Mavli, District
Udaipur, Rajasthan.
----Respondents
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Kuldeep Singh Solanki.
HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE PUSHPENDRA SINGH BHATI
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAVEER BHATNAGAR
Order
19/04/2023
1. The petitioner has approached this Court by way of this writ
petition (PIL) with the following prayers:-
"i) That the respondents may kindly be directed
to remove an encroachment upon the disputed land
like pasture land as indicated by the petitioner in the
Annex.1. They may kindly be directed to remove all
the encroachments and they may kindly be further
directed to clear all the public lands from
encroachments."
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has shown the order
passed by a Division Bench of this Hon'ble Court in the case of
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D.B. Civil Writ Petition No.9510/2022 (Mahendra Pal Vs.
State of Rajasthan & Ors.) decided on 12.07.2022.
3. Having heard and considered the submissions advanced by
counsel representing the petitioner and, having gone through the
material available on record, we are of the firm view that the
petitioner has available to him a suitable remedy for ventilating
his 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 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
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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 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."
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4. Thus, the petitioner is 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.
5. The PLPC shall have a thorough enquiry conducted into the
representation of the petitioner 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 six months from the date of
submission thereof.
6. In case, any adverse order is passed, the petitioner shall be
at liberty to challenge the same as per law.
7. The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms. All
pending applications also stand disposed of.
(PRAVEER BHATNAGAR), J. (DR.PUSHPENDRA SINGH BHATI), J.
12-Jitender
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