STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. SANKALCHAND P VACHHETA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these matters are disposed of by this common Judgment and order, as common point is involved in all these matters. All these Appeals are arising out of the Judgments and orders passed by K.R.Vyas, J. in Special Civil Applications and Miscellaneous Civil Applications, filed in Special Civil Applications.

(2.) Learned Advocate General Shri Shelat appearing with learned A.G.P. Shri PR Abichandani for the Appellants submitted that the Appellant - State of Gujarat and Competent Authority and the Deputy Collector (ULC) were required to file all these Appeals against the orders passed by the learned Single Judge in writ petitions whereby the learned Single Judge of this Court disposed of all the writ petitions on the point of possession. He submitted that due to the connivance of the officials of the Government and the AGPs, who appeared in the writ petitions, with the original petitioners the Government has suffered loss running into crores of rupees as it has lost thousands of Acres of valuable lands worth crores of rupees which were already vested in the Government and the possession thereof was already taken over since long. Learned Advocate General also stated at the Bar that because of dereliction of duty the Government had also issued Notices to the concerned AGPs and, thereafter, they were sacked as AGPs. In view of the above serious allegations we have heard learned Advocate General Shri Shelat and other learned Counsel for the respondents to a great length. On the point of maintainability of the present LPA all these Appeals were seriously opposed by learned Senior Advocate Shri S.B.Vakil and all other Counsel, appearing for the respondents. It may also be stated that in some of the matters the learned Counsel Mrs.K.A.Mehta, Mr.A.J.Patel and others appearing for the respondents conceded that Appeals before this Court against the Judgments and orders passed by the learned Single Judge, were maintainable as their petitions were mainly under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It may also be stated that all the learned Counsel for the respondents original petitioners also submitted that if this Court comes to the conclusion that the LPAs were maintainable then without expressing any opinion on merits, the matters be straightaway sent back to any other Single Judge for deciding the writ petitions afresh, strictly in accordance with law, on merits.

(3.) Learned Senior Advocate, Mr.Vakil and others had argued the point of maintainability of Appeals to a great length. In nut-shell we would like to reproduce the contentions of the ld. advocates on the maintainability all these Appeals, which are as under :-