PATEL BALDEVBHAI AMBALAL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Art.226 of the Constitution challenges the notification dated December 31, 1997 (Annexure "I") issued by the State Government under S.7 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, (hereinafter referred to as "the B.L.R. Code") insofar as it has shifted three villages - Amja, Mubarakpura and Chandisana from the Kalol taluka of Mehsana district into the Mansa taluka of Gandhinagar district.

(2.) In the month of October, 1997, the State Government had decided to bifurcate certain districts and talukas and in that process, the district Mehsana was bifurcated into two districts, i.e., Mehsana and Patan. Some of the talukas and villages from Mehsana district were also amalgamated with the existing Gandhinagar district. In this process, certain talukas also came to be bifurcated and villages forming part of the original talukas came to be amalgamated with one or the other taluka. The notifications under S.7 of the B.L.R. Code specifying the constitution of the districts and talukas were issued on October 15, 1997. Separate notifications were issued for separate talukas and each of the concerned notifications was accompanied by a Schedule containing the list of the names of villages which were included in each particular taluka. The notification mentioned the division and the district of which the taluka shall form a pArt.The headquarters of the taluka was also specified in each notification. Variations made in December, 1997 in a few of the aforesaid notifications shifting a small number of villages from one taluka to another have given rise to certain petitions. The present petition is one of them.

(3.) This petition is filed by three different petitioners hailing from three different villages called Amja, Mubarakpura and Chandisana respectively. Prior to and even as per the notification dated October 15, 1997 these three villages were earlier placed in the Kalol taluka of Mehsana district. Previously Mansa was a part of Vijapur taluka in Mehsana district, but upon division of the district and talukas as aforesaid, Mansa had already been formed as a separate taluka with villages drawn from the erstwhile Vijapur taluka and placed in Gandhinagar district as per the notification dated October 15, 1997. Subsequently, by notification dated December 31, 1997 (Annexure "A" to the petition), the said three villages have been placed in Mansa taluka of Gandhinagar district. This petition challenges the aforesaid variations whereby these three villages are not merely deleted from the list of the villages in Kalol taluka and placed in another taluka, but also taking them from Mehsana district and placing them in Gandhinagar district.