Govind Singh Thakur And Others vs State Of Madhya Pradesh And Others

Deepak Khot, J

The present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed seeking the following reliefs :-

(i) Issue any appropriate write, direction or orders to the respondent authorities to refrain from taking any coercive action or adopting summary measures to dispossess the Petitioner from the land bearing Khasra No. 113 and 164/2 situated at Village Kabrata, District Tikamgarh.

(ii) Issue a Writ in nature of certiorari quashing the show cause notice dated 18.02.2025 issued by the Tehsildar Badagaon, Dhasan, Tehsil and District Tikamgarh.

(iii) Issue any other writ, order or direction as this Hon'ble Court deems fit.

Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner has received a notice under Section 248 of the M.P.L.R.C. issued by the Tehsildar, Badagaon, District Tikamgarh. It is submitted that petitioners are in permissive possession, for which documents of Tax receipts and Khasra entries have been filed. However, it is settled that the writ petition against show cause notice is not maintainable. The Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Union of India v. Kunisetty Satyanarayana, (2006) 12 SCC 28 has held as under :-

It is well settled by a series of decisions of this Court that ordinarily no writ lies against a charge-sheet or show-cause notice vide Executive Engineer, Bihar State Housing Board v. Ramesh Kumar Singh [(1996) 1 SCC 327 : JT (1995) 8 SC 331] , Special Director v. Mohd. Ghulam Ghouse [(2004) 3 SCC 440 : 2004 SCC (Cri) 826 : AIR 2004 SC 1467] , Ulagappa v. Divisional Commr., Mysore [(2001) 10 SCC 639] , State of U.P. v. Brahm Datt Sharma [(1987) 2 SCC 179 : (1987) 3 ATC 319 : AIR 1987 SC 943] , etc.

The reason why ordinarily a writ petition should not be entertained against a mere show-cause notice or charge-sheet is that at that stage the writ petition may be held to be premature. A mere charge-sheet or show-cause notice does not give rise to any cause of action, because it does not amount to an adverse order which affects the rights of any party unless the same has been issued by a person having no jurisdiction to do so. It is quite possible that after considering the reply to the show-cause notice or after holding an enquiry the authority concerned may drop the proceedings and/or hold that the charges are not established. It is well settled that a writ petition lies when some right of any party is infringed. A mere show-cause notice or charge-sheet does not infringe the right of anyone. It is only when a final order imposing some punishment or otherwise adversely affecting a party is passed, that the said party can be said to have any grievance.

Writ jurisdiction is discretionary jurisdiction and hence such discretion under Article 226 should not ordinarily be exercised by quashing a show-cause notice or charge-sheet.

No doubt, in some very rare and exceptional cases the High Court can quash a charge-sheet or show-cause notice if it is found to be wholly without jurisdiction or for some other reason if it is wholly illegal. However, ordinarily the High Court should not interfere in such a matter.

Therefore, the petitioner prays for withdrawal of the petition with liberty to file reply to the show cause notice.

Accordingly, petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to file reply to the show cause notice within seven days from today along with all the documents. In case such reply is filed within the stipulated time, then the Tahsildar shall decide the case initiated on the show cause notice under section 248 of the Code after giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioner by issuing speaking order within one month from the date of receipt of the reply along with certified copy of this order.

Till then, the authorities are restrained to take any coercive action against the petitioner.

With the aforesaid, the petition is disposed of.

Certified copy today.