PEPSICO INDIA HOLDINGS LTD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petition is directed against an order dated 15. 4. 99 passed by the Deputy Secretary (Appeals) Revenue Department, Government of Gujarat. By the said order, revision application of the petitioner came to be dismissed and order dated 18. 3. 98 passed by the Collector, Surendranagar came to be upheld.

(2.) SHORTLY stated facts of the case are as follows:

(3.) HAVING heard the learned advocates appearing for the parties and having perused the sequence of events, it becomes clear that the deletion of new tenure entry was made by the Deputy Collector way back in June 1981. This was also communicated to the Collector at the relevant time. Assistant Collector issued notice in the year 1990. In any case, the Assistant Collector could not have reviewed the order of Deputy Collector. Perhaps for that reason the Collector issued fresh notice on April 1997 seeking to take order of the Deputy Collector in suo motu revision. Thus nearly 16 years after the deletion of new tenure entry and converting the land into old tenure, proceeding was sought to be initiated. In the order passed by the Deputy Secretary, he found that conversion was fraudulent. However, nothing is brought on record to suggest what steps were taken against the concerned Government Officer. More importantly, in the meantime, land ownership changed hands several times. Present petition came into picture long after conversion of land from new tenure to old tenure land. There is nothing on record to suggest that petitioner was aware about such fraudulent transaction.