NAYAN KUMAR MOHANTY Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks for a direction to the District Sub-Registrar, Cuttack (opposite party No. 2) to effect registration of the document of sale deed prosecuted before him.

(2.) Case of the petitioner is that with a view to sell a vacant piece of land under the Urban Agglomeration of Cuttack, he served statutory notice on the Competent Authority, Urban Land Ceiling, Cuttack (opposite party No. 3) on 23-6-1992 as required under sub-section (1) of Section 26 of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Land Ceiling Act'). The said competent authority initially declined to grant acknowledgment of receipt of the statutory notice which compelled the petitioner to file O. J. C. No. 9316 of 1992 in this Court. This Court by order dated 8-3-1998 disposed of the matter with a direction that the petitioner would approach the competent authority on 10-2-1993 during office hours and hand over to him a duplicate copy of the statutory notice. Since the competent authority did not exercise its option to purchase the said land on behalf of the State Government within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the statutory notice, he presented the sale deed for its registration on 2-3-1993 along with the acknowledgment receipt of the statutory notice before the District Sub-Registrar, Cuttack. The Registering Authority however, did not, register the sale deed although the same was free from any defect.

(3.) The District Sub-Registrar-opposite party No. 8 has filed counter-affidavit. He has averred that although the prospective vendor had attached the statutory notice with the sale deed, he could not take any further steps in view of the communication made by the competent authority as per Annexure-A/2.