SUBODHCHANDRA GULABBHAI DESAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Petitioners herein i.e. petitioner No. 1 being the husband and petitioner No. 2 being the wife have filed this Special Civil Application through their constituted Attorney Shri Tulsidas Shamjibhai Patel with the prayers as under :-

(2.) . This Special Civil Application was filed in this Court on 5-10-1999 with the prayers as aforesaid. The petitioners claim to be the owners of the lands bearing Survey Nos. 15, 16, 19, 20 and 21 in the sim of village Majura, Taluka Chorasi, District Surat admeasuring about 6 lacs sq. yds. It is the case of the petitioners that this land was acquired by the State Government for the development of the Civil Hospital and Medical College of Surat on 29-3-1961, but only 1 lac and 90 sq. yds., of the land had been utilised for the development of the Civil Hospital and other allied Hospitals and medical check-up Centres and that the remaining land in question is not required for any future expansion and as such there is no expansion programme as on date. The petitioners have alleged that the land has remained unutilised for all these years i.e., for about 38 years and the petitioners being the original owners had represented before the Collector, Surat in the year 1989 as provided in the Land Manual. The petitioners representation was for the re-grant of the land. The petitioners have alleged that the Collector called for the opinion of several authorities, including the Executive Engineer, Surat and the State Government and according to the petitioners the reports of all these authorities had been received revealing that the land, which had been acquired, was not to be utilised for any project and in fact it had remained unused. The petitioners have stated that the Officers from whom the reports were called for have admitted the factual basis that the lands are open, unused and not needed and may be re-granted to the petitioners and on that basis ultimately, the Minister of Revenue Department of the respondent No.l through his Personal Assistant directed the concerned Secretary of the Department to do needful expeditiously in the matter of the petitioners' application read with the opinion papers. Copies of such documents have been annexed with the petition as Annexure "B" collectively. The petitioners claim that they are entitled to have the re-grant of the land and the land is required to be re-granted and re-vested in the hands of the petitioners, who are the former real owners from whom the lands are acquired, and therefore, the petitioners are entitled to the reliefs claimed in the petition.

(3.) . When this petition came up before the Court on 7-10-1999 the petition was admitted by a single Bench of this Court. While admitting the petition, the Court noticed the statement of the learned Counsel for the petitioners that in the letter dated 10-11-1989 (Annexure "B") a reference has been made by the Special Land Acquisition Officer that some litigation filed by the petitioners was pending before the Apex Court and a Reference under Sec. 18 was also pending before the competent Court, but these two proceedings had been finally decided and now nothing remains pending before the Apex Court or any Reference under Sec. 18 before the competent Court. The learned Counsel for the petitioners undertook to file a specific affidavit on this point and in terms of the order dated 7-10-1999, the affidavit was filed on behalf of the petitioners as recorded in the proceedings dated 14-10-1999 and the matter was posted for 26-10-1999 by granting time to the learned A.G.P., for filing the counter-affidavit. The matter was adjourned on different dates before the single Bench and on 28-6-2000 when the matter came up before the Court (Coram: A. L. Dave, J.), it was recorded that, "Matter relates to land acquisition. To, be placed before appropriate Bench." On the basis of this order dated 28-6-2000 passed by the Court (Coram : A. L. Dave, J.), the Registry made a submission that as per the sitting the land acquisition matters were being placed before Hon'ble M. H. Kadri and D. P. Buch, JJ., but whereas Mr. S. B. Vakil was appearing in this matter, the same could not be placed before Hon'ble M. H. Kadri, J., and therefore, orders were sought from Hon'ble Chief Justice. Hon'ble Chief Justice passed an order that it may be placed before Hon'ble D. C. Srivastava and Hon'ble H. K. Rathod, JJ. This order was passed by Hon'ble Chief Justice on 3-7-2000 and the matter came up before the Division Bench. When this matter was listed before the Bench of Hon'ble D. C. Srivastava and H. K. Rathod, JJ., on 27-7-2000 an order was passed that this matter may be listed before a Bench of which Hon'ble H. K. Rathod, J., is not a member. The matter then came up before the Bench of Hon'ble D. C. Srivastava and K. M. Mehta, JJ. On 25- 8-2000 Hon'ble K. M. Mehta also directed that he was sitting in a regular Division Bench and taking the final hearing matters from Monday to Thursday and it will result in piecemeal hearing which was inconvenient, and therefore, he directed the office to place the matter before Hon'ble Chief Justice for appropriate orders, and therefore, the matter was again placed before Hon'ble Chief Justice and the Hon'ble Chief Justice passed an order on 30-8-2000 that me matter may be listed before Court No. 8 i.e., before Hon'ble J. M. Panchal and Hon'ble M. C. Patel, JJ. Thereafter, with me change of the sittings the matter came up before this Bench. On 27-2-2001 when the matter was argued for some time, the learned Counsel for the petitioners sought time to study the matter further and the matter was posted for hearing today i.e. on 8-3-2001.