Himachal Pradesh High Court
M/S Vidhimata Wood Pvt. Ltd. vs . State Of H.P. & Others. on 6 July, 2023
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Satyen Vaidya
M/s Vidhimata Wood Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of H.P. & others.
CWP No. 1714 of 2023 .
06.07.2023. Present: Mr. Devyani Sharma, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Anirudh Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner.
Mr. Anup Rattan, Advocate General with Mr. Ramakant Sharma & Ms. Sharmila Patial Additional Advocates General, Ms. Priyanka Chauhan, Deputy Advocate General and Mr. Rajat Chauhan, Law Officer, for the respondents.
The instant petition has been filed for grant of the following substantive relief:-
"It is, therefore, respectfully prayed that this writ petition may kindly be allowed and an appropriate writ, order or direction may be issued thereby quashing and setting aside the impugned order dated 04.10.2022 (Annexure P-25) and granting the extension of time for demarcation of land, enumeration, marking and felling of trees from Kandlidhar in Khasra No. 10/7/2 in Trehta Beat, Holi Block, Bharmour Division, District Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, beyond the prescribed year of felling, in terms of clause 8 of the Order No. FFE-B-A(3)4/99 dated 10.9.2002 and amendments dated 11.11.2003 and 24.9.2003, and while doing so, the period during which the case of the petitioner for extension of time remained pending with the respondents and in litigation(s) due to illegal rejection by the respondents, may kindly be excluded for granting extension of time for demarcation, enumeration, marking and felling of trees from area".
The respondents have considered and rejected the case of the petitioner primarily on the ground that the area in question has been notified as Protected Forest without taking into consideration, the decree passed by the Civil Court, which has been affirmed up to the Hon'ble Supreme Court holding the predecessor in interest of the petitioner to be the owner of the land in question.
The second contention raised is that the property has been classified as "Gahar Sarkar", whereas the documents on record go to indicate that the same has been classified only as "Gahar" and not as "Gahar Sarkar". Gahar otherwise means Pastures, as is evident from the perusal of Gazetteer of India, Himachal Pradesh, ::: Downloaded on - 07/07/2023 20:40:32 :::CIS Chamba (Annexure P-26). On what basis, the respondents claim on affidavit and also in the impugned order that the land in question is .
"Gahar Sarkar" is not at all forthcoming.
Confronted with this, learned Additional Advocate General prays for and is granted two days' time to obtain instructions.
List on 10.07.2023.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan) Judge (Satyen Vaidya) th 06 July, 2023 Judge (tarun) ::: Downloaded on - 07/07/2023 20:40:32 :::CIS