Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
State Of Rajasthan And Ors. vs Inhabitants Of Bundi City on 1 September, 1994
Equivalent citations: AIR1995RAJ116, 1995(2)WLC381
ORDER G.C. MIttal, C.J.
1. Public Health and Engineering Department, Bundi started raising con-struction of an over-head water tank for meeting the supply of domestic water to the residents of Bundi in view of the increased population. When the construction reached the raising the pillars upto the fourth level, the inhabitants of Bundi city, as first plaintiff and five more residents, filed a suit to restrain the raising of the over-head water tank in the public park saying that it had to remain as it is for the use of the residents of the town of Bundi and for this reliance was placed on an earlier decision of this court in Citizens of Bundi v. Minicipal Board, (1987) 2 Raj LR 179 : (AIR 1988 Raj 132). In the said judgment the inhabitants of the Bundi city had obtained a decree of injunction against the State Government and the Municipal Board, Bundi to leave the place as an open site which is for the purpose to be used as a public park and the remaining part for public functions meetings etc. and they were restrained from raising any construction thereon. This previous decision was rendered on a suit which was necessitated because the Municipal Board, Bundi had covered part of the periphery of the aforesaid site bv raising shopping complex. By the time the shopping complex was complete, the suit was filed. The result was that the complex was allowed to stay but injunction was issued not to raise any further construction.
2. Along with the suit, an application was filed for restraining the State Government in the Public Health and Engineering Department to stop the construction. Injunction was granted by the trial court and that has been maintained by the first appellate court and this is Revision against those orders.
3. The contesting respondents have been served. None appears for them despite service. Accordingly I proceed to decide the case ex parte.
4. The total area of the green park and the space for public use for functions/meeting etc., which are to be held, is of the tune of 1,28,125 sq. feet. On one side of the open space there is a temple and by the side of the temple the over-head water tank is being constructed.
5. It is argued on behalf of the Government that the previous decision, referred to above, does not stand in the way of the Government in raising an over-head tank because the public has not been deprived of the utility of the public space and both the courts below have misunderstood the earlier decision. Earlier the Municipal Board had converted part of the periphery of the open space into shopping centre and it was apprehended that more and more shops may be constructed and that was stopped so that the public could utilise the open space and the park for the purpose it was kept reserved.
6. I have seen the photographs as also the site plan. There is a temple on one side of the open space and very close to that temple, this over-head tank is being constructed and the open space of the park is left untouched. For the increasing need of water, by the public of Bundi some more over-head water tanks have to be constructed and to my mind the space where the over-head tank is said to be constructed would in no way stand in the way of the public in making full utility of the open space of the park as it is on one side and close to the temple.
7. Accordingly, I am of the view that the courts below exceeded their jurisdiction in granting the injunction. Accordingly the Revision allowed. The orders of the courts below are set aside and the application for grant of injunction is dismissed.