Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 4: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal today issued several directions to the Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Samba and Vice Chairman Jammu Development Authority for carrying out the demarcation of un-demarcated 66,436 Kanals of land in a speedy manner.
When the PIL highlighting the menace of encroachment came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Suraj Singh, Rahul Raina and Supriya Singh Chouhan appearing for the PIL submitted that the Vice Chairman JDA has filed a detailed affidavit in compliance to order dated May 23, 2017 read with order dated July 19, 2017 wherein it has been submitted that JDA has taken over the possession of 471 Kanals and 05 Marlas of land in district Samba and 910 Kanal and 13 Marlas in Jammu. However the Revenue record is yet to be handed over by the respective Deputy Commissioners to the JDA.
“The VC has stated that though issue of demarcation has been taken up vigorously by the JDA with the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Samba yet the progress achieved so far is very low due to non availability of proper revenue record”, Advocate Ahmad said.
At this stage Advocate Adarsh Sharma appearing for JDA submitted, “JDA requires additional manpower to complete demarcation work as per the schedule fixed by the court”. However, Deputy Advocate General Ahsan Mirza appearing for Revenue Department controverted the submissions of Advocate Adarsh Sharma and submitted that the demarcation so far carried out has been possible with the assistance of Revenue Department only.
“Till date no formal request for any documents / revenue records has been received from VC JDA by both the Deputy Commissioners”, he said, adding “Revenue Department is extending full cooperation to the JDA in carrying out the directions of the court”.
At this stage, Advocate Ahmad submitted, “the petition is not adversarial in nature and the purpose is the retrieval of huge chunk of JDA land from land mafia and thus the cooperation is expected from all the Government agencies”. He also pointed out from the affidavit of VC JDA that the senior officers of JDA dealing with the matter were also required to be provided personal security for moving from one place to another in view of the threat perception from the land mafia.
After considering the submissions, Division Bench directed that VC JDA shall apprise Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Samba about the requirement of man power and shall furnish the particulars of the revenue record of the villages/locations which are needed by it.
“On the receipt of communication, the revenue records as sought for by the VC JDA shall be supplied by the Revenue Department within a period of two weeks from the date of the receipt of such communication”, the DB further directed, adding “on receipt of the revenue record, the JDA shall ensure that the land which is demarcated and is free from encroachment is fenced again so as to prevent it from encroachment in future”.
DB further directed Inspector General of Police, Jammu to provide police protection to the officers of the JDA who are carrying out the demarcation work. “The officers of JDA and Revenue Department shall work in coordination with each other and try to accomplish the demarcation within a time limit fixed by this court”, the DB added.
Advocate Ahmed also drew the attention of the Division Bench to a fresh miscellaneous petition filed by Satish Kumar Sharma, a resident of Rajpura Camp seeking appropriate directions to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, SDM Marh and Tehsildar Marh to ensure retrieval of State land (Chenab River Bed) measuring 50 Kanals and 18 Marlas falling under Khasra No. 482 situated at village Rajpura.
After considering the submissions of Advocate Ahmed, the Division Bench granted two weeks time to Deputy AG Ahsan Mirza for filing reply to the miscellaneous petition. Similarly, in an identical miscellaneous petition the Division Bench after hearing Advocate Abhinav Sharma granted three weeks time to Deputy AG Ahsan Mirza to respond to the same.
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