ORAL ORDER
1. The petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution with following prayers made in paragraph No.6 thereof:
"(A) This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari or in the nature of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, direction or order quashing and setting aside the communication by the respondent Collector on
16 January 2004 as confirmed by the order passed by the respondent No. 1 Secretary (Appeals) on 8 March 2013 and further directing the respondent Collector to reconsider the application referred by the petitioner for grant of 12 acres of land from Survey Number 124 part from village Dangia of Taluka Dantiwada of District Banaskantha in addition to 13 acres of the land already granted to the petitioner.
(B) During the admission, pendency and final disposal of the present petition, be pleased to restrain the respondent authorities or their servants, agents or officers from disturbing the possession of the petitioner of 12 acres of land from Survey Number 124 part which is in possession of the petitioner in addition to the 13 acres of the land already granted to the petitioner by way of lease extended from time to time.
Page 1 of 3
(C) Be pleased to pass such other and further orders as may deem just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.
(D) be pleased to award costs of this petition."
2. As stated in the petition and as could be noticed from the order dated 20.08.1985 at Annexure-'B' passed by the Collector, the petitioner was allotted / granted 13 acres of land from the land bearing survey No.124 situated at Village - Dangia, Taluka - Dantiwada. The land bearing survey No.124 was a Gauchar land ad- measuring 25 acres and from such Gauchar land, the petitioner was granted 13 acres for education purpose. Such grant of 13 acres from the Gauchar land has been renewed from time to time. The petitioner has however occupied remaining 12 acres of Gauchar land and made application to grant such 12 acres of land. Such demand of the petitioner was rejected by the Collector vide order dated 16.01.2004, the copy whereof is placed at Annexure-'C'. In such order, the Collector has observed that 13 acres land was sufficient for the petitioner for the purposes for which it was granted to it. The Collector has also observed that the additional 12 acres of land demanded by the petitioner has been encroached by the petitioner and such act of the petitioner of encroaching the Government land would encourage other persons to encroach upon the Government land. The petitioner challenged the above order of the Collector before the Secretary, Revenue Department (Appeals), Ahmedabad. However, the Secretary has rejected the revision application filed by the petitioner by the impugned order dated
08.03.2013.
3. Learned AGP Ms.Nisha Thakor appearing for the State on advance copy has drawn the attention of the Court to the other observations made by the Collector in his order dated 16.01.2004 while rejecting the application of the petitioner for grant of
Page 2 of 3
additional 12 acres of Gauchar land. She submitted that as per the direction of Hon'ble Supreme Court as regards Gauchar land, there should not be any further allotment from Gauchar land.
4. Learned advocate Mr.Joshi appearing for the petitioner states before the Court that if 12 acres of land of survey No.124 additionally demanded by the petitioner is to be used only for the purpose of grazing cattle as Gauchar land and for no other purpose, the petitioner does not want to press for the challenge made in the present petition and will handover the possession of the 12 acres of land for use thereof as Gauchar land.
5. In view of the above, the petition is disposed of as not pressed.
6. The Collector of the Banaskantha District - respondent No.2 is directed to take possession of 12 acres of survey No.124, which is in unauthorized occupation of the petitioner, within a period of 4 weeks from the date of receipt of this order and shall restore the possession of such land to the Dangia Gram Panchayat - respondent No.3 for using the same as Gauchar land only for the purpose of grazing cattle. It is directed that the 12 acres of land to be taken possession from the petitioner and to be restored to the respondent No.3 - Dangia Gram Panchayat shall be used only as Gauchar land for grazing cattle and shall not be put to any other use without prior permission of this Court.
7. The registry shall send the writ of this order to the respondent No.2 - the Collector for its compliance.
(C.L. SONI, J)
GUPTA*
Page 3 of 3