SIKH EDUCATON SOCIETY Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith, with the consent of the rival parties. Sikh Education Society, Nagpur has filed the present Writ Petition, inter alia, praying for:-

(2.) In support of the Writ Petition, Mr. P.A. Abhyankar, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is an Educational Society registered under the relevant Acts. In the year 2001, the petitioner-society was allotted part of the land in Khasra No. 81/1 admeasuring 3.78 hectares by the Government for establishing its Pharmacy College, which is functioning since then with an intake capacity of 400 students. The Respondent No. 6, an association of Muslims, encroached upon the adjoining plot after the allotment of land to the petitioner-society as aforesaid; and started burying the dead bodies treating it as Kabristan. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, the Development Plan nowhere shows any Kabristan in the said encroached area by the respondent No. 6 and, in the absence thereof, there should not be any activity of burial of dead bodies in the nearby Khasra No. 86 of Mouza Nari, Tq. & Dist. Nagpur. Learned counsel for the petitioner then submitted that it is the boundened duty of the respondents to remove the said encroachment and prevent burying dead bodies by the Muslim community treating it as Kabristan for the simple reason that it is not an Kabristan area. The petitioner-society, its college and students are put to great inconvenience due to the act of burial of dead bodies in the said Khasra No. 86.

(3.) Per contra, learned counsel for the respondents including respondent No. 6, pointed out that during the course of hearing of the present Writ Petition, it was found that the burial grounds in the city of Nagpur, which has seen exponential increase in the population in the last two decades, have been found to be not available proportionally. The development continues unabated in the city of Nagpur but without making provision for burial of dead bodies in appropriate localities with appropriate area. The said site in Khasra No. 86 where the burial ground has been identified and is being utilized by respondent No. 6 and the Muslim community at large. Is being used since the year 1999 i.e. even before allotment of land in favour of the petitioner-society, which was fully aware of the activity of burial in the said burial ground. Learned counsel for the respondents then pointed out that the present Writ Petition was filed in May 2012 ventilating a grievance in respect of apathy and inaction on the part of the State authorities on the representations which were made on 30.5.2005 as averred in paragraph 6 of the Writ Petition, followed by representation dated 13.7.2005 for prevention of the use of the said land as burial ground and, as such, the petition is barred by delay and laches. Learned counsel for respondents then pointed out that the burial ground is being used for several years and it is not the forest land but was being wrongly shown as a forest land. At any rate, according to learned counsel for the respondents, by now, during pendency of the present Writ Petition series of developments have taken place and looking to the pressing need for burial ground for Muslim community, Khasra No. 86 has been found to be most suitable area for locating burial ground for the entire area, which has come up in the last two decades. Accordingly, the authorities, namely, the respondents, their District Planning Authority have taken a decision on 24.1.2013 to treat Khasra No. 86 as a burial ground for the Muslims. Under the said agreed position for necessary changes in the Development Plan, it was decided to send a proposal to the State Government under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 (in short "the Act of 1966") and accordingly by a letter dated 2.11.2013 the Nagpur Improvement Trust had forwarded the proposal to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and is now awaiting further steps for action tinder the Act of 1966.