Harijan Dahyabhai Sajanbhai vs State of Gujarat and Others

M.R. Shah, J.—Rule. Mr. N.J. Shah, learned Assistant Government Pleader waives the service of notice of rule on behalf of the respondents in Special Civil Application Nos. 3594 to 3598 of 2010 and Mr. Amit Patel, leaned Assistant Government Pleader waives the service of notice of rule on behalf of the respondents in Special Civil Application Nos. 3599 to 3603 of 2010.

With the consent of the learned advocates appearing on behalf of the respective parties and in the facts and circumstances of the case, all these petitions are taken up for final hearing today.

As common question of law and facts arise in this group of petitions, they are being disposed of by this common judgement and order.

In all these petitions, the respective petitioners have prayed for an appropriate writ order and/or directions to quash and set aside the impugned orders passed by the revisional authority i.e. Special Secretary (Appeals), Revenue Department, State of Gujarat in respective Revision Application Nos. 19, 13, 20, 21, 22, 17, 12, 18, 14, 15 of 2008, by which the learned revisional authority has refused to stay the execution of the respective orders passed by the Collector, Junagadh, impugned in the revision applications, during the pendency of the aforesaid revision applications.

Having heard the learned advocates appearing on behalf of the respective parties and considering the fact that the respective petitioners seem to be in possession of the lands in question since 1988 and if the execution of the order passed by the Collector, Junagadh, impugned in the aforesaid revision application, is not stayed, the revision applications would become infructuous, all these petitions can be disposed of by directing the parties to maintain status-quo as on today and directing the revisional authority to decide and dispose of the revision applications at the earliest and within the stipulated time in accordance with law and on merits.

In view of the above, all these petitions are disposed of by directing the respective parties to maintain status-quo as on today and the revisional authority i.e. the Secretary (Appeals),Revenue Department, State of Gujarat is hereby directed to decide and dispose of the Revision Application Nos. 19, 13, 20, 21, 22, 17, 12, 18, 14, 15 of 2008 at the earliest but not later than four months from the date of receipt of the present order and until then the parties are directed to maintain status-quo as on today. The revisional authority to decide and dispose of the aforesaid revision applications in accordance with law and on merits, without in any way being influenced by the present order directing the parties to maintain status-quo, as this Court has not expressed anything on merits in favour of either parties and it is ultimately for the revisional authority to consider, decide and dispose of the aforesaid revision applications in accordance with law and on merits. The respective petitioners and their advocate/s are directed to co-operate the learned revisional authority in early disposal of the aforesaid revision applications and within the stipulated time stated hereinabove and they shall not ask for any unnecessary adjournment. It is observed that if the revisional authority is of the opinion that the petitioners herein and/or their advocate/s is/are not co-operating in early disposal of the aforesaid revision applications within the stipulated time stated hereinabove, in that case, it will be open for the revisional authority to proceed further with the hearing of the aforesaid revision applications even ex-parte after recording the reasons.

With these, all these petitions are disposed of.