Ashok Kumar And Ors vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors

In wake of onslaught of COVID-19, abundant caution is being taken while hearing the matters in Court.

The Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in D.B. Civil Writ Petition (P.I.L.) No.10819/2018-Jagdish Prasad Meena & Ors.Vs. State of Rajasthan

& Ors. vide order dated 30.01.2019 has directed as under:-

In order therefore to provide a pan-Rajasthan solution to this ever persisting problem, we deem it appropriate to direct the Chief Secretary of the

State to devise a permanent mechanism, which should be operational in every District of the State where the concerned District Collector should be

required to periodically notify for the information of the general public to lodge the complaints/representations with regard to such encroachments with

a specially designated Public Land Protection Cell (for short 'PLPC') for rural areas. The PLPC should be headed by District Collector and function

under his direction and supervision. The PLPC shall get such complaints/ representations enquired into by deputing concerned Sub Divisional

Officer/Tehsildar/Naib Tehsildar so as to verify whether or not such encroachments have actually taken place on such land. If the allegations are

found to be substantiated, appropriate steps in accordance with law be immediately taken for removal of the encroachments and appropriate penal

action be also taken against the trespassers. The complaints/representations received in the PLPC should be decided by passing speaking order,

informing the respective complainant/representationist about the action taken.

This would obviate the necessity of such complainants/representationists approaching this Court directly by way of public interest litigation. If this

practice is put in place, this Court would not be inclined to directly entertain such public interest litigation or would do so only in the event of in action

on the part of the concerned PLPC.

The PLPC aforementioned shall also keep in view the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh & Others Vs. State of Punjab &

Others,(2011) 11 SCC 396 wherein all the State Governments of the country were directed that they should prepare schemes for eviction of

illegal/unauthorised occupants of the GramSabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/ Shamlat land and the same must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram

Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village. The said scheme should provide for the speedy eviction of such illegal occupants, after

giving them a show cause notice and a brief hearing. It was further held therein that long duration of the illegal encroachment/occupation of land or

huge expenditure in making construction thereon or political connections of trespassers are no justification for regularising such illegal occupation.

Regularisation should be permitted only in exceptional cases where lease has been granted under some government notification e.g. to landless

labourers or members of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes or where there is already a school, hospital, dispensary, 'shamshan','kabristan' or other

public utility of the like nature on the land. Observations of the Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh(supra) thus leaves no manner of doubt that removal of

encroachment on all such land is a rule and regularisation an exception and that too in extremely limited number of cases, which only the Government

can do by appropriate notification of the government and no other authority.

List this matter on 14.03.2019.

A copy of this order be sent to the Chief Secretary of the State of Rajasthan, Government Secretariat, Jaipur, who shall ensure compliance of this

order and do the needful for creation of Public Land Protection Cell (PLPC) for rural areas.

After arguing for sometime, counsel for the petitioners in the light of the directions contained in the matter of Jagdish Prasad Meena (supra) wants

to withdraw this petition with liberty to file representation/application before the Public Land Protection Cell/District Collector-Sri Ganganagar with

regard to the encroachments of which reference has been made in the present writ petition. On doing so, the Public Land Protection Cell/District

Collector-Sri Ganganagar is directed to decide the said representation/application within a period of three months, keeping in view, the directions

contained in the matter of Jagdish Prasad Meena (supra). The stay application as well as all pending applications stand disposed of.