DAVID RENATO BRAGANZA Vs. STATE OF GOA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SINCE common questions of law arise for determination in both the petitions, the same were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) THE petitioners seek to challenge the grant of plot of land in favour of respondent Shri Rabindu Narayan Ray (hereinafter referred to as respondent No. 5) on the ground that the said grant has been in contravention of the provisions of law. The respondent No. 5 was the then Member-Secretary of North Planning and Development Authority and now Chief Town Planner, Government of Goa. The interim stay of construction by the respondent No. 5 and the maintenance of status quo till the disposal of the petition was granted on 9-4-1996 in Writ Petition No. 123 of 1996.

(3.) IT is the case of Shri David Renato Braganza, the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 123 of 1996 and hereinafter called the petitioner, that the plot of land belonging to respondent No. 3 which was applied for by him in March, 1991 has been granted in favour of the respondent No. 5 in contravention of the provisions of the Code of Communidades. It is his contention that the application of the respondent No. 5 for the grant of plot was filed with the respondent No. 3 much after the filing of the application by the petitioner. Besides, the respondent No. 5 was not entitled to be allotted with any plot of the respondent No. 3 as his gross annual income always exceeded the maximum limit prescribed under the Code of Comunidades to enable a Government employee to get a plot of a Communidade allotted in his favour. It is also the case of the petitioner that the respondent No. 5 using his influence, even changed the sub-division of the area and, consequently, changed the number of the plot in an attempt to defeat the right of the petitioner to get the plot which was applied for by the petitioner.