Court No. - 40
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 18770 of 2021 Petitioner :- Shri Digamber Jain Bal Bodhni Sabha Saharanpur Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ashish Kumar Singh,Ajay Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Satyam Singh Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; learned Standing Counsel for respondents 1, 2, 3 and 5; Sri Satyam Singh for respondent no.4; and perused the record.
The petitioner is aggrieved by a notice dated 8th April, 2021, issued by the Assistant Engineer, Provincial Division, Public Works Department, Saharanpur purportedly under Section 441/447 of the IPC.
A perusal of the notice would reveal that the petitioner has encroached upon the road of the Public Works Department by constructing a boundary wall and therefore has been requested to remove the constructions or else demolition shall be carried out forcibly and the expenses incurred thereon will be recovered from the petitioner.
The case of the petitioner is that construction raised by the petitioner is over his own plot and the petitioner has not occupied government land and earlier also proceedings under the U.P. Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1972 were initiated but those proceedings were dropped and therefore the notice served upon the petitioner is liable to be quashed.
As the impugned notice is on the own assessment of the respondents, the correctness of the facts stated in the notice would have to be assessed and determined in appropriate proceedings whenever they are drawn by the notice giver and therefore we do not find any good reason to quash the notice as has been prayed for, at this stage. However, since the notice also threatens demolition of the boundary wall of the petitioner if the same is not removed, we deem it appropriate to dispose off this petition by requiring the respondents to carry out measurement of the property of the petitioner to ascertain whether the petitioner is in occupation over his own property or over the government land. Such measurement exercise shall be carried out in accordance with law and after giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and in case the petitioner is aggrieved by such measurement exercise, it would be open to the petitioner to take recourse to appropriate legal remedies, as may be advised. It is expected that no forcible demolition of the petitioner's boundary wall shall be carried out without taking appropriate measurements.
With the aforesaid observation, this petition is
disposed off.
Order Date :- 12.8.2021. Rks.