VAGHELA RANJITSINH DEVISING Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Special Civil Application has been filed by large number of employees of the Government of Gujarat from Bhuj or the villages nearby in Kachchh-Bhuj District who have been working as Drivers, Peons, Ward Boys, Naiks, Police Constables, Assistants, Surveyors including certain retired employees etc. seeking a direction to quash and set aside the decision of the respondent-authorities so as to charge these petitioners in respect of the land in question for allotment to them at the rate of Rs. 900/- per sq. mtr.

(2.) The case of the present petitioners is that they had applied for allotment of the land for constructing residential houses on different dates in the years 1989, 1990 and 1991, on the basis of 'no profit no loss' (Betha Thale) subject to the terms and conditions under Government resolutions dated 1-5-1963 and 28th March, 1989. On the basis of the applications made in the year 1991 and the years prior thereto as above, the Collector, Bhuj arranged a computer draw which was held on 21st October, 1994 in respect of a part of the land bearing Survey No. 870. It is the case of the petitioners that as per this computer draw, the plot numbers to be allotted to the respective petitioners were also indicated as has been given in Annexure-A against the names of respective petitioners. However, the State of Gujarat did not accept the proposal made by the Collector, Bhuj on the basis of the aforesaid computer draw as the Government decided to grant the aforesaid land i.e. land admeasuring 32181.6 sq. mtrs. of Survey No. 870 situated at Bhuj, Dist. Kachchh at the price of Rs. 72,40,860/- to the Gujarat Housing Board in pursuance of the Govt. resolution dated 8th April, 1996. Thus, the question of the allotment of the land to the petitioners could not materialise despite the computer draw held on 21st October, 1994 and the same land which was made the subject-matter of the computer draw for the purpose of allotment to the petitioners by the Collector, Bhuj was given to the Gujarat Housing Board by the Govt. in the year 1996 vide G.R. dated 8-4-1996. The case of the petitioners is that the resolution dated 8th April 1996 also contained the condition that 200 claimants who are Govt. employees who intend to join the scheme of the Gujarat Housing Board will be entitled to priority which is meant for the higher income group. The Collector, Bhuj, thereafter, in pursuance of the office order dated 20th June 1996, granted the above-referred land to the Gujarat Housing Board. The concerned Govt. employees who had applied in 1991 and years prior thereto and who had participated in the computer draw were not desirous to join the scheme of the Gujarat Housing Board as they were interested in the open plot of land as per the computer draw held on 21st October, 1994. They protested against the action of the Govt. granting the same land to the Gujarat Housing Board, but despite this protest, no action was taken in favour of the employees, and therefore, 89 Govt. employes preferred Special Civil Application No. 3221 of 1998 before this Court challenging the Govt. resolution dated 8th April, 1996 and the order dated 28th June, 1996 passed by the Collector in pursuance thereof. In this Special Civil Application, a prayer was also made that open plots of land be granted in favour of the petitioners. A set of other eight Govt. employees had also filed petition being Special Civil Application No. 6394 of 1998. These Special Civil Applications Nos. 3221 of 1998 and 6394 of 1998 were decided by a co-ordinate Bench of this Court (Coram: Hon'ble Mr. M. S. Shah, J.) on 21st July, 1998 with the directions as under :

(3.) The State Govt. thereafter, took a decision to grant the plots of land admeasuring 100 sq. mtrs. to each of the present petitioner from the part of the same Survey No. 870 for residential purposes at the rate of Rs. 900/- per sq. mtr. However, the grievance raised by the petitioners in this petition is that they could not be charged at the rate of Rs. 900/- per sq. mtr. inasmuch as they are not responsible for the escalation of the price for all these years. Their case is that they had applied in the year 1991 and even in the years prior thereto, the computer draw for them had also been held in the year 1994 and if the same land tor which the computer draw was conducted to finalise the allotment for them was given to the Housing Board by the Government in the year 1996, and thereafter, the petitioners had to approach this Court by way of the Special Civil Applications as aforesaid and now the Govt. has taken a decision after the directions issued by this Court to allot the pieces of 100 sq. mtrs. of land to the petitioners in the year 1999, they cannot be made to suffer merely because the Govt. has taken a long time in taking a decision with regard to the allotment of the land in favour of the Housing Board upto 1996 and uptil now in case of petitioners and the prices have gone up as per the market rates of the land in question. It has been submitted that the land which was earlier proposed to be allotted to the petitioners was given to the Housing Board at the rate of Rs. 225/- per sq. mtr. in 1996 and the land which is now allotted to the petitioners is also out of the same Survey No. 870 for which they are required to pay four times than the rates at which the Housing Board was given this very land. It is submitted that the rate of Rs. 900/- per sq. mtr. is highly excessive and disproportionate as compared to that of Rs. 225/- per sq. mtr. The contention which has been raised by Mr. Vora on behalf of the petitioners is that the petitioners are Govt. servants and low paid employees, some of them are retired and they should be given the lands at the same price at which it was given to the Housing Board, i.e., at the rate of Rs. 225/- per sq. mtr. even if it is held that they are not to be given at subsidised rate. It has also been submitted that the petitioners cannot be taxed merely because the question of allotment has remained pending for all these years and but for the decision which was taken by the Govt. in the year 1996 to allot the very same land to the Housing Board, the petitioners would have got the land at that time itself. Mr. Vora has placed reliance on a decision of a co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of Ashutosh Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. v. State reported in 1995 (2) GLR 1419.