Illegal possession of land in connivance with Revenue staff
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 16: High Court today directed Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR) Jammu to fix the responsibility of officials, who facilitated the petitioner in having illegal possession of land.
In the petition filed by one Prem Singh challenge was thrown to numerous official communications regarding construction of Receiving Station at Greater Kailash under Central Sponsored Scheme.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Sanjeev Kumar observed,” there are two versions of Mutation No.272 dated 08.06.1957, one placed on record by the petitioner with his writ petition and one relied upon and placed on record by respondents along with their objections filed through S S Nanda, Senior Additional Advocate General”.
“In the given facts and circumstances, it is, however, difficult for this court to believe one version and ignore the other. This makes the task of this court not only difficult but very complicated. However, without going into this aspect of the matter, I would like to address the controversy on the basis of facts which are indisputable and with regard to which the parties are at ad idem”, Justice Kumar said.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar further observed, “it appears that though the ancestors of the petitioner were not found entitled to conferment of ownership rights but there was no specific order by any competent authority determining their occupancy right”.
“Having a ringside appraisal of the whole issue and in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, this court is of the view that the petitioner cannot be fastened with the whole blame. The mess, as it appears, is the result of inefficiency of the revenue officers concerned. The unholy alliance between the petitioner and the revenue officials concerned also cannot be ruled out”, High Court said.
“It has also been brought to my notice that the subject land has already been taken over by Power Development Department and the construction of Receiving Station has been going on ever since. This also makes the issue fait accompli”, Justice Kumar said.
With these observations, High Court disposed of the petition with the direction that the Assistant Commissioner, Revenue Jammu along with Tehsildar Bahu shall conduct an in-depth enquiry in the matter in the light of observations made in the judgment and the referred provisions of the Act of 2007, as also other applicable provisions of law and shall make recommendations to the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu.
“The committee of revenue officers shall in particular find out the reasons and circumstances under which the petitioner and his predecessors-in-interest continued to remain in possession of the land even after attestation of mutation No.272 dated 08.06.1957”, High Court said, adding “the committee shall also find out as to how petitioner and his predecessors-in-interest remained in cultivating possession of the land when in terms of Mutation No.272 of 1957 they had ceased, in law, to be the occupancy tenants”.
The committee has further been asked to find out as to why and how different entries in the tenancy column came to be made from time to time by the revenue officers and, if possible, identify the officers responsible for the lapse, if any.
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