Court No. - 29
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 25851 of 2021 Petitioner :- Aniruddh Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rakesh Pathak Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Munishwar Nath Bhandari,Acting Chief Justice Hon'ble Piyush Agrawal,J.
Heard Shri Rakesh Pathak, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for the State - respondents.
By this writ petition, a challenge is made to the notice dated 09.09.2021, by which direction has been given to the petitioner to remove the encroachment. It is alleged that construction was raised on the land belonging to the Public Words Department (PWD), State of Uttar Pradesh. Thus, the petitioner has been asked to remove the construction within 21 days.
It is submitted that the notice dated 09.09.2021 has been issued without an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. In case of hearing, the petitioner could have produced the title document to show his rights in the land in question. It is also to show that he has not encroached the land belonging to the PWD. In view of the above, the impugned notice dated 09.09.2021 be quashed.
Learned Standing Counsel could not supply reason as to why the notice dated 09.09.2021 was issued without an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. As to why construction was not stopped then and there. It cannot be raised over night. Thus, it was in the knowledge of the Officers, yet they did not stop the petitioner to raise construction, if the land belongs to the PWD.
In view of above, we dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the Executive Engineer, Prantiya Khand, PWD, Sonbhadra to provide an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, for which three weeks' time is given, and accordingly, the petitioner would appear before the Executive Engineer, Prantiya Khand, PWD, Sonbhadra on 18.10.2021 at 11.00 a.m. along with his title document.
The petitioner would be heard and after considering the document, if the Executive Engineer does not get satisfaction qua the land in question, he would pass an order immediately thereupon.
If the petitioner fails to prove his title, the respondents would be at liberty to execute the notice dated 09.09.2021. However, if the title document is produced, the notice aforesaid would not be given effect.
The writ petition stands disposed of, with the aforesaid.
Order Date :- 7.10.2021 Amit Mishra (Piyush Agrawal,J.) (Munishwar Nath Bhandari,A.C.J.)