The Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction against the respondent authorities to maintain the purpose of worshiping ‘Sarna Tree’ (Devsthali) of gram panchayat Kotal as mentioned in the revenue record of the village and delete the name of respondents which was illegally entered in the revenue record.

Akath Kumar Yadav, counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a benevolent citizen and permanent resident of village Gram Panchayat Kotal. The petitioner by way of the petition represents a large number of local residents of village Gram Panchayat Kotal and other adjoining localities. The local residents particularly in village Gram Panchayat Kotal are using the disputed land as Dev Sthali (Sarna Tree) because they have worshiped the Sarna Tree as mother since long age.

The disputed land has been recorded in the government revenue record as a grassland which comes under the Nistari land as per Section 237 of Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959 and as per said section the nature of land shall not be changed without prior permission and sanction of the government and for the land of Nistari the Supreme Court issued a guideline and according to said guideline the State Government also circulated a mandatory circular to every Collector of District regarding the protection of Nistari land, the respondent State Authorities with an intention to grant due favour of respondents allowing them to register their names in the land records and as such, prays for grant of the relief as aforesaid.

At the very outset, a preliminary objection has been raised by the State counsel regarding maintainability of this present public interest litigation as the petitioner has efficacious remedy under the Code of 1959 .

Considering the prayers made by the petitioner in the present petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal noted that the petitioner has efficacious remedy under the Code of 1959 and without availing the said remedy, the petitioner has rushed to the Court, as such, the present public interest litigation is dismissed with a liberty to the petitioner to raise his grievance before the appropriate authorities under the provisions of the Code of 1959.

The Chhattisgarh High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) direction to respondent authority for removing the encroachers from the Government land of village Chhatauna.

Akhat Kumar Yadav, Counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner filed this petition due to inaction on part of the State authorities over the land which has been encroached by the private respondent No.8 and the land is completely belongs to Gram Panchayat Chhatouna under the revenue Division of Takhatpur of Bilaspur Distt. The petitioner being a social activist, has raised his voice against respondent No.8 before the competent authorities, but the State authorities, without taking proper adjudication, have allotted the public land (grass land and small bush land and the stone quarry) to the private parties against the violation of Chhattisgarh Land Revenue laws. The respondent No.8 has illegally encroached the government Land of Gram Panchayat Chhatouna. The petitioner has raised his objection with oral and written submission before the respondent authorities, but till date there is no substantial action against the encroachers by the State authorities.

The Counsel for the State pointed out that an affidavit has been filed by the Secretary, Department of Revenue in compliance with an order dated 18.7.2023 passed by the High Court, which is on record. Encroachment as alleged by the petitioner , the land situated on Khasra belongs to one , which is evident from the present land record B1 and Khasra. As far as other Khasra are concerned, at present there is no encroachment over it. Other land in question has been recorded as Stone quarry spread over area of 6.70 acres at village Chhatuouna and as per the present land record, one part of the land of area 1.58 acre has been allotted under exchange scheme by which revenue proceedings was initiated and order was passed by Additional Collector. So far as other khasra is concerned, it was found that at present total 278 encroachers had encroached upon the government land bearing Khasra No.602/1 and proceedings under Section 248 of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code had been initiated against those encroachers.

From perusal of the above mentioned affidavit, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice NK Chandravanshi noted that some building materials were found on the disputed land and proceedings under Section 248 of the Code has been initiated and penalty of Rs.500/- has also been imposed under the above said section. Said encroachment, i.e. material for construction of the road, has been removed by respondent No.8 and they also built a concrete road for the convenience of the villagers. It was further pointed out by counsel for the State that no such encroachment has been made by respondent No.8 on the portion of disputed Khasra , whereas, proceedings under Section 248 of the Code has been initiated against 278 encroachers, who have encroached the said land.

Considering the said facts, proceedings which have been initiated against the encroachers, as has been pointed out in the affidavit filed by the Secretary, Department of Revenue, the same should be removed in accordance with law, after giving opportunity of hearing to the parties , the Court directed.

The Chhattisgarh High Court has recently dismissed as withdrawn a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for setting aside the notification dated 20.10.2021 issued by the state government whereby, a new district Sarangarh–Bilaigarh, is sought to be created by exercising the powers under sub-section (2) of Section 13 of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959 by altering the limits of Raigarh and Baloda Bazar–Bhatapara.

The PIL has been filed by Gram Panchayat, Kandola through its Sarpanch Onkar Patel.

Meena Shastri, Additional Advocate General (AAG), who appeared for the respondents, submitted that already four PILs are pending, and therefore, there is no justification for entertaining another on the same subject matter.

She submitted that, however, the petitioner had made an averment in the petition that to the best of his knowledge, no other PIL is pending on the same subject matter.

Rule 79 (1) of the High Court of Chhattisgarh Rules, 2007 requires that the petition shall contain the statement of the petitioner whether any petition was filed in the Court relating to the same cause and the result thereof, AAG added.

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At this juncture, S.P. Kale, Advocate for the petitioner, submitted that he may be permitted to withdraw this application with liberty to file an appropriate application in a pending public interest litigation petition.

Considering the above submission, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice N. K. Chandravanshi observed that this PIL is not entertained and accordingly, the petition is dismissed on withdrawal.

The Bench granted liberty to the petitioner to file an application.

“In the event of filing of such application, the same shall be considered in accordance with law,”

directed the Court.

The Chhattisgarh High Court recently dismissed a PIL with a cost of Rs 2,500 on the petitioner heading the cause of a Government Primary School, Government Middle School and Government Higher Secondary School.

The PIL has been filed by one Mohan Lal Patel primarily on the ground that Government Primary School, Government Middle School and Government Higher Secondary School are situated at village Charra and the additional lands were allotted to them 40 years back. The school used to do agriculture and thereby used to earn. It is stated that the said earning was used in the development of the school.

The petitioner submitted that all of a sudden the State has occupied the part of the land without any allotment to them and started construction and access of the school to such land and the general public has been stopped. The petitioner further submitted that on enquiry it was revealed that agriculture college is being constructed over the land.

It is further submitted that the land which is under use in respect of which no express allotment was made by the State and the petitioner is resident of village Charra, Block Kurud and because of such action the school would be deprived of their future income as was being done earlier.

Further, it is contended that the account sheet has been filed to show that the revenue generated from the income over the said agricultural land was being used for the development of the school, therefore the respondent be restrained to raise any construction over the land on which the alleged agriculture college is constructed. Petitioner further contended  that when initially this PIL was filed the State took time to file their reply and taking advantage of this, the construction was being raised over the subject land. Therefore, the respondent be restrained to raise any superstructure over the land, claimed the Petitioner.

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Per contra,  State counsel H.S. Ahluwalia opposed the argument and argued that the land has been allotted by the Collector in exercise of power under Section 237(3) of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code for construction of agriculture college at village Charra. It is submitted that the government land on which the construction is raised was earlier allotted to forest of total area 17.39 hectare and total 30.06 hectare including the grassland (community land) was allotted for construction of college by changing the nature.

Ahluwalia  further apprised the Court  that the Government Primary School Charra, Government New Primary School Charra and Government Middle School are situated over land which is approximately 1 to 1.5 km away from the land allotted for construction of building. He further submitted that the plea raised by the petitioner that the revenue are being generated would be completely frivolous for the reason that it is government school for which the salary are being paid to the teachers from the government fund and the petitioner therefore cannot espouse the cause.

The Division Bench of Justice Goutam Bhaduri and Justice N.K. Chandravanshi after hearing the Counsel for the respective parties observed that there is no document on record to show that any such allotment at any point of time was made to the school. Counsel for the Petitioner though has pointed out that the pond has been covered but there is nothing on record to substantiate the same except the oral statement.

The documents which are placed on record obtained under the RTI purports that Rs 35,000, Rs 16,000 and Rs 20,000 was earned by agriculture which is certified by the HeadMaster thereby the earning of Rs 71,000 was generated for the last revenue year. The account is also filed to show the earning and expenditure with a earning column and expenditure column.

The Court failed to understand under what capacity the government school was having its earning by the extra source to generate the revenue of its own and in turn spend it according to their free wish and will.

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“The petitioner wants to espouse the cause of the government school that their earning would be stalled but what provisions and rules allows such earning to a government school is unknown. No one from the government school made any representation or any application to the State; instead it appears that handed over the baton to this petitioner. When the government funds are being utilized then there are certain norms and procedures that are required to be followed. In the instant case, it can’t be left open to the free wish and will of a teacher/principal of a particular school to make an earning by encroachment over the government land and spend it to their own accord. Even if there is certain earning from the out source, for the expenses and account there is no audit, therefore who has pocketed the money is unknown,”

-further observed the Court.

On the contrary, the State has filed its affidavit along with an order which is filed in the petition of 28/06/2018  which shows that the Collector, Dhamtari has allotted the land part for construction of agriculture college. The construction of the agriculture college would be for the public purpose. The affidavit filed by the State states that the exercise of power was made under Section 237(3) of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code whereby such lands were allotted. Further the affidavit also purports that the  government school situated is about 1 to 1.5 km away from the land allotted for construction of the building.

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“In view of the above discussion, if the school was in occupation of certain land and were earning the revenue, in absence of any allotment letter no presumption can be drawn. It would be only a self certificate issued to the school itself and under what capacity the petitioner has filed this PIL also makes it doubtful. Under the circumstances, taking into the facts of this case we are of the opinion that the petition so preferred in the name of the public cause is frivolous and is liable to be dismissed with a cost of Rs 2500 to be payable to the State,”

-the Order reads.

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