RABINDRA KUMAR BISOI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the present writ petition challenge has been made to the construction of mobile tower by opposite party No.8 - The General Manager, North -East Circle, Assam Region, Telecom Circle of Wireless, Tata & IT Services Ltd., At : DN -30, Sector -5, Salt Lake, Calcutta -91 and opposite party No.9 -The General Manager, Idea Cellular Ltd., Plot No.437, Ground Floor, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, Dist : Khurda in a prohibited Bhoodan area and inaction of opposite party No.7 -Tahasildar, Puri in not prohibiting/evicting the unauthorized occupants from the said Bhoodan land on the ground that such construction in the Bhoodan land is illegal and also detrimental to the public life.

(2.) PETITIONERS case in a nutshell is that they are permanent residents of Penthakata area under Puri Sea Beech Police Station in the District of Puri. They are public spirited persons and always interested for development and upliftment of the local area. They have filed this writ petition in the nature of Public Interest Litigation. Except larger interest of public in agitating the grievance of the local people, the petitioners have no other interest. According to the petitioners, opposite party No.8 and 9 have illegally constructed Mobile Towers in the Bhoodan land. The petitioners approached the Administrative Officer, Bhoodan Yagna Samiti, Bhubaneswar who is the competent authority, by filing a representation, under the Orissa Bhoodan and Gramadan Act, 1970 (for short, "Act, 1970") to evict the encroachers. Pursuant to such representation, the Administrative Officer vide its letter dated 30.05.2009 (Annexure -2 series) intimated to the Tahasildar, Puri about the illegal construction of Mobile Towers over Bhoodan Plots in Balukhanda Penthakata area, Puri and requested to stop construction of the towers. The Tahasildar, Puri in connivance with opposite party Nos.8 and 9 did not take any effective action rather he has encouraged the said opposite parties to go ahead with the work. In spite of several representations made to the different authorities, no appropriate action has been taken by them. Hence, the present writ petition.

(3.) MR . B.P. Tripathy, learned counsel appearing for opposite party No.10 -Administrative Officer, submits that the land less persons to whom the land have been allotted by the Samiti have no right to alienate the land in any manner.