Court No. - 36
Case :- WRIT - B No. - 3189 of 2018 Petitioner :- Ganesh Respondent :- Board Of Revenue, Allahabad And 6 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Santosh Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Ashok Kumar,Manoj Kumar Yadav
Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.
Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
The present petition is directed against the order dated 9.11.2017 passed by the Board of Revenue whereby the matter has been remitted back to the Collector, Ghazipur to decide the objections of the respondent Nos.4 to 7 on the validity of the resolution dated 15.12.2008 approved on 13.2.2009.
It appears that respondent Nos.4 to 7 had filed objection on 30.3.2013 to the allotment order dated 13.2.2009 with the assertion therein that the land in question was not vacant and the trees planted by the respondent Nos.4 to 7 were standing therein at the time of allotment. The Collector, Ghazipur vide order dated 4.9.2014 has rejected the said application with the finding that the Revenue Authorities had submitted a report that certain villagers had encroached upon the said land by planting trees.
This order was challenged in revision allowed vide order dated 9.11.2017 which is under challenge in the present petition.
Learned counsel for the petitioner has invited attention of the Court to the fact that the application for cancellation of allotment was filed after a period of five years by the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7 with the assertion that they had planted trees over the land in question. No other infirmity had been pointed out in the resolution dated 15.12.2008 or the allotment process.
Learned counsel for the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7, on the other hand, submits that the Revisional Court has simply remitted the matter to the Collector with an observation to examine the validity of the allotment. This Court, therefore, may not interfere in the same.
Considering the submissions of learned counsel for the parties and having perused the record, it is more than apparent that the application for cancellation of allotment made in favour of the petitioner was filed by the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7 after a period of more than 5 years with the only assertion therein that they had planted trees over the land belonging to the Gram Sabha. On the pointed query made by the Court, no plantation lease could be placed before the Court by the contesting respondents nor any averment has been made in the writ petition with regard to any such lease being granted by the Gram Sabha.
A copy of the application filed by the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7 has been placed before the Court by the learned counsel for the respondents. A bare perusal of the application indicates that the said application was moved simply to seek cancellation of the allotment made in favour of the petitioner without any assertion as to how the applicants were aggrieved by the said allotment. Mere fact that certain persons have planted trees over the land of Gram Sabha will not confer any legal right to them on the land belonging to the Gram Sabha. No illegality or irregularity in the procedure adopted by the Gram Sabha for allotment made in the year 2008 has been pointed out.
Even otherwise, on the application moved by the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7 the Collector, Ghazipur had called for the report of the Revenue Authorities so as to find out the truth of the assertions made therein. It is categorically recorded in the order passed by the Collector that the Revenue team had submitted the report that certain persons have encroached upon the land in question by planting trees over the same.
In view of the above noted fact that at no point of time there was any plantation lease in favour of the contesting respondent Nos.4 to 7 and that no irregularity in the procedure adopted by the Gram Sabha for allotment in the year 2008 could be pointed out, mere assertion of the respondents that the land was not vacant on the date of allotment could not be a ground to entertain the application for cancellation of allotment. The Board of Revenue has simply ignored this aspect of the matter.
In view thereof, the order dated 9.11.2017 passed by the Board of Revenue is hereby set aside. The matter is remitted back to the Board of Revenue for fresh consideration keeping in view of the claim of the parties. An expeditious decision in accordance with law shall be taken by the Board of Revenue, preferably, within a period of two months from the date of submission of certified copy of this order after examining the record and satisfying himself about the validity of the order passed by the Collector.
The writ petition is, accordingly, allowed. Order Date :- 28.3.2018 Jyotsana