RAMESHBHAI MAGANBHAI CHAVDA Vs. KADI MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Special Civil Application No.9576/2000 is filed by one Shri Rameshbhai M.Chavda, who is an elected Councillor of Kadi Municipality. The petitioner has set out in para 1 of the petition that he is also an active social worker and he has been taking up several public causes with various authorities. It is also stated that the petitioner is a law abiding citizen and is genuinely interested iAn espousing the public causes as a part of his duties as an elected representative of the residents of Kadi Municipality. The petitioner has filed this petition as a public interest litigation to bring to the notice of the Court a glaring example and shocking facts of respondents flouting the orders passed by this Court by which they were directed to remove the illegal construction. The petitioner has, therefore, approached this Court not only for writ of mandamus directing the respondents to demolish the shopping centre which was directed by order dated 20.1.1998 passed in Special Civil Application No.7109 of 1996, copy of which is produced at Annexure "A" , but has also prayed for appropriate writ, order or direction directing the concerned respondents to take action under the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 against the erring respondents, i.e. Kadi Municipality and Shri Laljibhai Nanjibhai Patel, President of Kadi Municipality for deliberately and willfully not complying with the directions issued by this Court whereby they were directed to remove the unauthorised construction. The petitioner has also prayed for appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondent No.5 (a) Secretary, R and B Department, Govt. of Gujarat to take appropriate disciplinary (punitive) action against the Executive Engineer, R and B, Mehsana who is ultimately responsible for not complying with the directions issued by this Court in Special Civil Application No.7109/96 dated 20.1.1998.

(2.) The facts giving rise to the present proceedings are not required to be stated in detail for the sake of brevity. The facts are set out in Special Civil Applications No.9576 of 2000 and 9599 of 2000.

(3.) However, some facts are reproduced to have an [idea of the background in which the present order is passed. It is required to be noted that a Special Civil Application No.10258 of 1998 was filed by 41 persons who were required to be evicted, but no interim protection was granted by this Court and still the authorities did not take any step to carry out the directions issued by this Court. The said Special Civil Application was withdrawn unconditionally in the month of April 2000.