Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sk. Nooruddin vs State Of West Bengal & Ors on 12 November, 2013
Author: Soumen Sen
Bench: Soumen Sen
98. November
12, 2013 High Court at Calcutta
Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
Civil Appellate Side
W.P. 28866 (W) of 2013
Sk. Nooruddin
Versus
State of West Bengal & ors.
Mr. Yamin Ali,
...for the petitioner.
Mr. Fazlul Haque,
Mr. Jayanta Narayan Mahanty,
...for the corporation.
Mr. Chittaranjan Ghosh,
...for the State.
An affidavit of service is filed, let the same be kept on
record. In spite of service, no one appears on behalf of the private
respondents, when the matter is called on.
The basis of the impugned order appears to be the identification of land by the Thika Controller as a thika tenanted property. In my view, the municipal commissioner has rightly proceeded on the basis of the identification of the land made by the thika controller in deciding the matter.
However, one issue needs to be decided. It is the specific case of the petitioner that the property has been identified as thika property without any enquiry and without giving any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, who claims to be the owner of the property, and the name of the petitioner's father had been deleted by the corporation authorities on the basis of the communication received from the thika controller.
In view thereof, the Thika Controller, who is the respondent no. 6 in the writ application, is directed to enquire into the matter. In the event, it appears that the said property is declared as a thika property without holding any enquiry and without giving any notice to the petitioner, who claims to be the recorded owner of the said property, the respondent no. 6 shall decide the matter afresh after giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner to represent his case.
It would be open to the petitioner to inspect the records of the thika controller pertaining to the premises in question and to make a representation before the thika controller with regard to the declaration of the said property as thika property as contended by the enquiry officer of the office of the Controller of Kolkata Thika Tenancy before the municipal commissioner.
It is needless to mention that in the event, the thika controller finds that the property has been wrongly identified as thika property, then all steps taken pursuant to the said identification shall stand automatically recalled and in that case the order passed by the municipal commissioner would also be reviewed.
dns The entire exercise, as aforesaid, shall be completed within a period of eight (8) weeks from the date of communication of this order to the respondent no. 6.
Since no affidavit in opposition has been called for, the allegations made in the writ application are not deemed to have been admitted by the respondents.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed of without, however, any order as to costs.
( Soumen Sen, J. )