Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24126 of 2019 Petitioner :- Suresh Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Prabha Shanker Pandey,Dilip Kumar Goswami Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Shashi Kant Gupta,J. Hon'ble Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J.
Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
This writ petition has been filed, inter alia, for the following reliefs :-
(i) Issue a suitable writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari for quashing of the impugned order dated 13.06.2019, passed by the respondent no. 2, The District Magistrate, Jalaun, whereby a sum of rupees 83,000/- is being recovered through samiti from the petitioner.
(ii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding directing the respondent Nos. 2 to 4 take necessary action against the anti-social elements for smooth running of the tube well installed under the special scheme of Dr. Bheem Rao Ambedkar Samudayik Nalkoop Yojna.
U.P. Nalkoop Irrigation Department has launched a scheme for irrigation of agriculture land under the name of Dr. Bheem Rao Ambedkar Samudayik Nalkoop Yojna. The petitioner and 10 others formed a committee under the presidentship of the petitioner who installed a tube well under the said scheme on the land provided by petitioner and one another. The tube well was installed and the Samiti was looking after.
As per the case of the petitioner, the payment of electricity was regularly paid, after taking contributions from the members of the committee as well as from other villagers. However, due to long outstanding of electric bills, the supply of power was disconnected due to non-payment of electric bills of Rs. 1,24,993/-. Later on, some partial amount was deposited, consequently, connection of power supply was connected. Later on again due to default, connection was disconnected and despite repeated requests, the members of the society have not contributed funds to clear the outstanding amount of Rs. 83,000/-.
In these circumstances, the petitioner approached the Collector, Jalaun at Orai through representation dated 12.01.2018, however, when the same was not decided, the petitioner had approached this Court by way of filling Writ C No.310 of 2019. The said writ petition was disposed of on 08.01.2019. The said order is reproduced hereinafter :-
"Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Akhileshwar Singh, learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondent.
According to learned counsel for the petitioner, under the Dr. Bheem Rao Ambedkar Co-operative Tube Well Scheme, a tube well was installed by the State over the land provided by the petitioner and the group society was formed, of which, the petitioner was the Chairman. However, the Members of the Society defaulted in payment of the specific dues and upon the petitioner requesting them to make their payments, they not only threatened the petitioner but also locked the tube well on 10.11.2018. Since then, tube well is not functional. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, as such, the funds of the State spent in tube well, are being wasted without proper utilization of the irrigation facilities that could be drawn out from the State tube well.
According to learned counsel for the petitioner, there is a report of the Executive Engineer, Tube well Division, dated 8th of June, 2018, about the earlier dispute relating to the payment of the bill using installed tube well (annexed as Annexure No.7 to the writ petition). It is further submitted that the petitioner has made a complaint before the Collector Jalaun, at Orai through representation, dated 12.1.2018, a copy of the same has been annexed as Annexure No.9 to the writ petition, which is still pending.
Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we dispose of the writ petition with the direction to the District Magistrate, Jalaun, at Orai, to get the representation of the petitioner examined and pass an appropriate order, in accordance with law, within a period of four weeks from the date of production of a certified copy of this order."
In pursuance of the abovementioned order, the Collector Jalaun at Orai has passed a detailed and reasoned order dated 13.06.2019, whereby it is mentioned that the petitioner was President of the Committee from 2014 to 2018, who has committed several financial irregularities which includes non maintaining of cash book, non issuing of receipt of the funds for irrigation etc. The Collector has also specifically noted that the petitioner has admitted the default and willingly decided to pay the outstanding amount of Rs. 83,000/- during the settlement entered between the parties.
The petitioner by way of present writ petition has challenged the order dated 13.06.2019. Shri Dilip Kumar Goswami, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has submitted that the impugned order is illegal and arbitrary as it has not taken note of the compromise dated 10.12.2016 wherein it was decided that the members of the Committee would contribute equally in order to pay the outstanding amount of electricity bill. Learned counsel has further submitted that he is not liable for the outstanding amount of Rs. 83,000/- and the same cannot be recovered from him as he has not committed any default.
From the perusal of the impugned order dated 13.06.2019, it is clear that the petitioner has entered into an agreement on 14.11.2018 in presence of the other villagers that petitioner will pay Rs. 83,000/- from his own pocket in order to satisfy the outstanding amount of Rs. 83,000/-. The petitioner has not been able to produce any document on record in order to show that proper receipts and accounts were maintained during his tenure as President of the Committee from 2014 to 2018. Learned counsel for the petitioner has also failed to show any document in order to contradict the factual findings arrived by the Collector regarding the non maintenance of proper records. As the petitioner has entered into a compromise on 14.11.2018 where he has admitted his liability of Rs. 83,000/-, no reliance could be placed on letter written in December, 2016 address to Station Officer Police Station- Churkhi, Jalaun informing that villagers have agreed to share the liability of the outstanding amount of Rs. 83,000/-. Learned counsel for the petitioner has not able to submit any evidence in order to prove the said document, whereas the Collector has noted about the agreement dated 14.11.2018 whereby the petitioner has accepted the liability.
In view of the above, as the petitioner has admitted the liability of Rs. 83,000/- and there is no document to show that records were properly maintained during his tenure as President. There is no illegality in the impugned order, and as such, the present writ petition is devoid of merit and is, accordingly, dismissed.
Order Date :- 25.7.2019 A. Dewal