TMI Blog2007 (2) TMI 637X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ter referred to as 'the Act') holding that no sufficient opportunity had been given to the land-owners before declaring their land to be excess and vacant land under the Act. The case has a checkered history and to appreciate rival contentions raised by the parties in their proper perspective, it would be appropriate to bear in mind the facts. Pranlal Zaverchand Doshi (since deceased) who has been represented through his heirs and legal representatives and Chandravadan Pranlal Doshi were owners of certain lands situate at village Mouje Parvati, Taluka Haveli, District Pune in the State of Maharashtra. On February 17, 1976, the Act came into force in the State of Maharashtra. The owners of the land filed a statement under sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Act in the prescribed form on August 14, 1976. The Competent Authority, Pune Urban Agglomeration prepared draft statement under sub-section (1) of Section 8 of the Act. The draft statement was sought to be served in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 8 of the Act. An order was passed by the Competent Authority on April 20, 1977 under sub- section (4) of Section 8 of the Act observing therei ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Pune and to pay occupancy price by challan. On January 9, 1979, the Competent Authority also issued notice under sub-section (5) of Section 10 of the Act directing the land-owners to handover possession of land within 30 days. It was stated in the said notice that the notification under sub-section (3) of Section 10 of the Act was published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette on August 24, 1978 and the land specified in the Schedule had absolutely vested in the Government of Maharashtra. It was further stated that since the owners were in possession of the land, they were required to surrender and deliver possession thereof within 30 days to the Tehsildar, Pune City who was duly authorized by the State Government to take it. It was also stated that in the event of their failure or refusal to surrender the possession by the owners, appropriate steps would be taken to take possession of the land by use of force. It appears that original owners of the land preferred an appeal under Section 33 of the Act in the Court of Collector and Appellate Authority under the Act at Pune on February 20, 1979. The said appeal was against an order passed under sub-section (3) of Section 10 of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e is no remedy of appeal after final notification u/s. 10(3) of the Act has been published. Considering all these facts the present appeal is not tenable . It is pertinent to note that nothing was done by the owners of the land for more than a decade after the above order in appeal was passed in August, 1979. On May 21, 1990, one Shaikh Issaqua Saikh Gafoor, Power of Attorney of P.Z. Doshi, one of the owners of the land, preferred an appeal to the Government under Section 34 of the Act. It was stated therein that the land was jointly owned by P.Z. Doshi and G.P. Doshi and it consisted of 'a built-up bungalow of about 500 sq. meters'. The bungalow was existing on the land since long i.e. when the land was purchased. It was further stated that since the land attracted the provisions of the Act, the owners had filed return (statement) under Section 6(1) of the Act. The Competent Authority, Pune Urban Agglomeration, while deciding the case, should have accorded two units i.e. 1,000 sq. meters each to P.Z. Doshi and C.P. Doshi to make total of 2,000 sq. meters. The authority, however, had granted only one unit of 1,000 sq. meters. A copy of the order under sub-section (4) of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hospital and for that purpose plans were submitted. A prayer was, therefore, made to decide the matter on merits and to issue direction to Additional Collector and Competent Authority to scrutinize and sanction the scheme under Section 20 of the Act. The Revisional Authority observed that it was proved that the applicant had not been given sufficient opportunity for showing the ownership documents to the Competent Authority and prima facie, the order of the Competent Authority dated April 28, 1977 was 'wrong'. In exercise of power under Section 34 of the Act, therefore, the said order was set aside and the case was remitted for reconsideration to Additional Collector and Competent Authority, Pune. It was directed that the applicant should be given sufficient opportunity by Additional Collector and Competent Authority, Pune before deciding the matter. It may be stated that neither the owners joined the appellantPune Municipal Corporation as party respondent, nor notice was issued, nor opportunity of hearing was afforded to the Corporation by the Revisional Authority though it was stated in the Revision itself that the land was allotted to the Corporation and the Corpo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Act. It was submitted that the order was passed by the Competent Authority as early as in 1977 and several consequential actions had been taken thereafter. Notifications under Section 10 were issued and the land stood vested 'free from all encumbrances' in the State Government. Pursuant to the demand made by the appellant-Corporation, a part of land was granted to the Corporation. An appeal filed by the owners under Section 33 was dismissed in August, 1979. The said order was never challenged by the owners by approaching the High Court. Revisional jurisdiction was invoked thereafter in 1990 i.e. after more than ten years of disposal of the appeal. (Though it was described as an appeal under Section 34 of the Act) Even that petition was dismissed. Surprisingly after more than three years, second revision petition was filed which was allowed by the Revisional Authority and the order of the Competent Authority was set aside. The counsel also submitted that though the land declared to be excess under the Act and vested in the Government was granted to appellant- Corporation and the owners were aware of the fact and had also filed a suit in the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Di ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... b-section (1) of Section 6 of the Act in August, 1976. Final order was passed declaring certain land to be excess land under the Act in 1977. Notification under Section 10(3) was issued and the land stood vested in the State 'free from all encumbrances'. A notice was issued to the land owners to handover possession of the excess land and the possession was taken over by the authorities. Pune Municipal Corporation applied for land and the State Government asked the Corporation to pay occupancy price of ₹ 1,45,000/- which was paid by the Corporation in February, 1979. So far as the order passed under Section 8 of the Act is concerned, it was never challenged by the land owners in the appeal. An appeal which was filed by the land owners in 1979 was an appeal against an order passed under Section 10(3) of the Act. The Appellate Authority, therefore, rightly held such appeal to be not maintainable. If the land owners were aggrieved by the order passed under Section 8 of the Act, either they should have challenged the order before the Appellate Authority or before the Revisional Authority. The Land owners did neither. The order, therefore, became final. More than a decade h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Government to exercise revisional powers suo motu. That, however, does not mean that a party cannot invoke such jurisdiction. A revision can also be filed by party aggrieved and it can invite the attention of the Revisional Authority as to illegality or impropriety of any order passed under the Act. The revision filed by the land- owners, therefore, could not be held to be not maintainable. But reading of the above provision makes it clear that revision is not an additional remedy over and above remedy of appeal under Section 33 of the Act. Section 34 of the Act authorizes the State Government to exercise revisional jurisdiction in those cases in which no appeal has been preferred . Thus, the remedy of revision is alternative to appeal and not additional or supplementary. The learned counsel for the appellant-Corporation is also right in contending that the Revisional Authority ought to have considered the fact that such jurisdiction was invoked by the petitioner after several years. It may be recalled that the first appeal filed by the land-owners was not against an order under Section 8 of the Act but against the notification under Section 10 of the Act, which was dismis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... if the Collector does not inform the applicant of his decision on the application within a period of three months the permission applied for shall be deemed to have been granted. This section shows that a period of three months is considered ample for the Collector to make up his mind and beyond that the legislature thinks that the matter is so urgent that permission shall be deemed to have been granted. Reading Sections 211 and 65 together it seems to us that the Commissioner must exercise his revisional powers within a few months of the order of the Collector. This is reasonable time because after the grant of the permission for building purposes the occupant is likely to spend money on starting building operations at least within a few months from the date of the permission. In this case the Commissioner set aside the order of the 'Collector on October 12, 1961, i.e. more than a year after the order, and it seems to us that this order was passed too late . (emphasis supplied) The law laid down in Patel Raghav Natha has been reiterated by this Court in several cases. We do not intend to burden our judgment with all those cases. We may only state that broad contention of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... orporation to allot the land. The prayer was granted and payment of ₹ 1,45,000/- was made by the Corporation and it started construction. They were indeed relevant and material facts and circumstances. The Revisional Authority, however, has not even referred to those facts and circumstances. The impugned order thus suffers from serious infirmity. To us, the High Court was wholly wrong in holding that Corporation was not 'affected' party. When the land was assigned to Corporation and Corporation made the payment of price, by no stretch of imagination, it can be said that the Corporation was not 'affected' party. From the record, it was clear that possession was handed over by the State and was taken over by the Corporation. The Corporation was proceeding to put up construction on the land which compelled the land-owners to institute a suit and to obtain order of status quo. The High Court in the circumstances, ought to have allowed the petition by setting aside the order of the Revisional Authority, by directing it to issue notice to the Corporation, to afford hearing and to pass appropriate order on merits. By not doing so, the High Court has committed the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ER 855, Lord Redeliffe had an occasion to consider a similar argument (that the order was null and void). Negativing the contention, the Law Lord made the following off-quoted observations: (T)his argument is in reality a play on the meaning of the word 'nullity'. An order even if not made in good faith, is still an act capable of legal consequences. It bears no brand of invalidity upon its forehead. Unless the necessary proceedings are taken at law to establish the cause of invalidity and to get it quashed or otherwise upset, it will remain as effective for its ostensible purpose as the most impeccable of orders . (emphasis supplied) A similar question came up for consideration before this Court in State of Punjab Ors.. v. Gurdev Singh, (1991) 4 SCC 1. In Gurdev Singh, a suit for declaration was instituted by the plaintiff contending that the order dismissing him from service was ultra vires, unconstitutional, violative of principles of natural justice and void ab initio and he continued to be in service. Such suit, in accordance with the provisions of Article 113 of the Limitation Act, 1963, must be filed within three years from the date of passing of order or where de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t could consider the merits of the matter and pass an appropriate order in accordance with law. The learned counsel for the State of Maharashtra strongly urged that the State authorities must act fairly and reasonably. When it found that an order was passed under Section 8 of the Act but the requisite notice was not served upon the land-owners, it must fairly state that the order was illegal and an opportunity should be given to the land-owners as to why appropriate order should not be passed under the Act after hearing them. There can be no two opinions about it. The State has to act fairly. But the State or a public authority must be fair not to one party but to all the parties to the litigation. In the present case, an order was passed by the Competent Authority in 1977, and in 1979, the land vested in the State, possession was taken over from land-owners, application was made by the Pune Municipal Corporation, land was allotted to it, an amount of ₹ 1,45,000/- was paid by the Corporation, possession was handed over to the Corporation and Corporation was undertaking construction activities. An appeal by the land-owners was dismissed in 1979 and revision, which was filed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d as party respondent before the Revisional Authority in the second revision, it could have pointed out that the land-owners were aware of the proceedings and because of such knowledge, they had not raised such contention. Ultimately, in such matters, the Court would apply 'prejudice test'. If the circumstances had proved that the land-owners were in know of proceedings, it is possible that the Revisional Authority might have refrained from exercising discretionary jurisdiction. Moreover, the appellant- Corporation could have contended that there was gross, unreasonable and unexplained delay on the part of the land-owners and it was not a fit case to exercise revisional power after such period. For the foregoing reasons, in our opinion, the order passed by the Revisional Authority and confirmed by the High Court is liable to be set aside and is hereby set aside. The matter is now remitted to the Revisional Authority for taking fresh decision in accordance with law after hearing the parties, including the Corporation. It is open to all the parties to raise all contentions available to them. It goes without saying that all proceedings taken in pursuance of the order passed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
