Allahabad High Court
Pawan Kumar Mishra vs State Of U.P. And 4 Others on 16 January, 2023
Bench: Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, Vivek Kumar Singh
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 40 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 35716 of 2022 Petitioner :- Pawan Kumar Mishra Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Nitesh Kumar Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Mahesh Chandra Tripathi,J.
Hon'ble Vivek Kumar Singh,J.
Heard Shri Nitesh Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Apurva Hajela, learned Standing Counsel.
Present writ petition has been preferred for quashing the order dated 3.10.2022 passed by respondent no.3-District Magistrate/ Collector, Deoria and for a direction to respondents to grant compensation in favour of the petitioner and concerned tenure holders as per Land Acquisition Act, 2013 in lieu of the agricultural land of the petitioner and concerned tenure holders acquired by the respondent authorities.
Learned counsel for the petitioner states that the petitioner is a resident of Village Jigna Mishra, Block Bhatni, Tehsil Salempur, Distt. Deoria and a construction of public road of 1.8 kms. has been notified in the name of CRPF Constable Shri Vijay Maurya, martyr in the Pulwama Militant Attack from Hatwa bye-pass to Village Chhapiya Jaidev passing through Village Jigna Mishra. The said 1.8 kms. link road from Hatwa bye-pass to Village-Chhapiya Jaidev is passing through Village-Jigna Mishir and the width of the said road is 3.75 mtrs. and 1 to 1.5 mtrs. of pathway has to be built by the State Government through Public works Department. The said approved road is mentioned as Naali and Chak Road in the revenue record. It is alleged that the said width of the chak road is 15 to 20 kari but the approved road is being constructed 30 to 35 kari and the surplus kari of the land is being taken from the farmers without their consent and without providing any compensation to the farmers of the said village and the soil from the surplus kari of the land is also being taken by the respondents. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid acts, the petitioner and other tenure holders of the said village have moved several representations to the authorities concerned but no action has been taken. Aggrieved with the same, the petitioner has preferred Writ-C No.6212 of 2022 (Pawan Kumar Mishra v. State of U.P. & Ors.), which was disposed of on 14.3.2022 with following observations:-
"1. The grievance raised by the petitioner in the present writ petition is that though the possession of the land owned by him was taken by the respondents, however, he has not been paid compensation therefor.
2. Learned counsel for the State submitted that for redressal of such grievance, a Committee was constituted by the State vide Government Order dated May 12, 2016. In case, the petitioner approaches the authority, his claim shall be decided in terms of the time fixed therein. He further submitted that this Court has also issued a direction on November 2, 2021 in Writ-C No.25425 of 2021 titled as Ram Kailash Nishad and others v. State of U.P. and others, for disposal of all such pending applications.
3. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and considering the submissions, in our opinion, it will be appropriate that the issues be examined by the Committee at this stage, as certain factual aspects need consideration.
4. Let the petitioner file his application before the Committee and, in case, such application is filed, the same shall be considered in terms of time fixed in the aforesaid Government Order.
5. The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of."
As per the aforesaid direction, the petitioner moved an application before the District Magistrate, Deoria on 16.4.2022. A seven members committee was constituted by the order of the District Magistrate, Deoria and the seven members committee have heard the petitioner with documentary evidence on 19.9.2022 and finally passed an order on 19.9.2022 rejecting the claim of the petitioner. It is alleged that the said enquiry report is vitiated as the Executive Engineer (Prantiya Khand), P.W.D. Deoria on one hand acted as an opposite party and on the other hand he was made member of the said seven members committee. It is also alleged that the said report is based totally on assumptions and incorrect facts. Only on the basis of the report of said seven members committee, the District Magistrate/Collector, Deoria has rejected the claim of the petitioner vide order impugned dated 3.10.2022 without applying his independent mind.
Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the report of seven members committee is based on illegal, arbitrary and hypothetical ground. The agricultural land of the tenure holders are the only source of their livelihood but the respondent authorities are not considering the grievance of the tenure holders and also not providing their compensation as per the norms and conditions of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
On the other hand, learned Standing Counsel has submitted that the impugned order has been passed strictly in accordance with law and there is no infirmity in it.
On the matter being taken up on 12.12.2022, the Court has proceeded to pass the following interim order:-
"Counsel for the petitioner submitted that construction of public road of 1.8 kms. was notified under Anubandh Sankhya-112/SE.-De.Vritt/21 dated 09.03.2021 in the name of C.R.P.F. Constable Shri Vijay Maurya Martyr in the Pulwama Militant Attack from Hatwa bye-pass to village-Chhapiya Jaidev passing through village-Jgna Mishir. The said 1.8 Kms. link road from Hatwa bye-pass to village-Chhapiya Jaidev is passing through village-Jigna Mishir and width of the said road is 3.75 meters and 1 to 1.5 meters of pathway has to be built by the State Government through Public Works Department. The said approved road is mentioned as Naali and chak road in the revenue record. It is further submitted that width of the chak road is 15.20 Kari but the approved road is being constructed in 30-35 Kari and lands of farmers are being taken without their consent and without providing any compensation and the soil from the surplus Kari of the land is also being taken by the State Government on behalf of the Public Works Department. Being aggrieved by the same, the petitioners have approached the District Magistrate as well as seven members committee, but their claims have been rejected on the ground that the chak road was existing in the area since 2017.
From the order impugned, it appears that there is no dispute with regard to the width of the existing road and the fact that the widening of road is being done under the aforesaid scheme, which is being executed by the Public Works Department.
Learned Standing Counsel prays for and is granted three weeks' time to seek instruction and place the entire record of construction of the chak road and beautification of the same by the Public Works Department, in Gata Nos.574, 558, 621 and 659 situated at Village Jigna Mishra, Block-Bhatni, Tehsil-Salempur, District-Deoria.
Put up on 10th January, 2023 as fresh, Till the next date of listing of listing, no further construction work shall be carried out on the plots in dispute."
The Court has proceeded to examine the record in question and find that serious factual disputes have been raised herein this writ petition, which cannot be adjudicated by this Court under Art.226 of the Constitution of India. The factual aspect, which has been raised herein this writ petition, can very well be looked into, examined and redressed by the Redressal Grievance Committee headed by the District Magistrate in the light of theGovernment Order dated 12.5.2016.
In view of above, the order impugned dated 3.10.2022 is set aside. The matter is relegated to the Redressal Grievance Committee headed by the District Magistrate to look into, examine and redress the grievance of the petitioner strictly in accordance with law expeditiously and preferably within three months from the date of production of certified copy of this order but certainly after giving opportunity to all the stake holders in the matter.
The writ petition stands disposed of accordingly.
Order Date :- 16.1.2023 SP/