M HABA Vs. STATE OF MANIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By Ms petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has assailed the notification dated 21st Sept. 1996 issued by the Secretary (Hills) to the Government of Manipur in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sub-section 2 of Section 3 of the Manipur (Village Authorities in Hill Areas) Act, 1956 (hereinafter the Act(. This notification has an important bearing for proper disposal of this writ petition and reads:-

(2.) Assailing the notification aforesaid Mr L.Sharat Sharma, Id.counsel for the petitioner raised the following contentions: (a) before issuing the notification aforesaid, there must be a village with defined boundary, and since there was no village inexistence of the respondent No.3 prior to the issuance of the notification, the notification is not valid in terms of sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Act. (b) Next it is contended by the counsel for the petitioner that the village so constituted by a notification aforesaid was within the village land of the petitioner and therefore the notification suffers from infirmities and liable to be set aside.

(3.) Counter on behalf of the respondent No.3 has been filed through Mr R. Daniel. In the counter the respondent No. 3 annexes various documents as Annexures-D/1,ID/2, D/3, D/4, D/5 and D/6 showing the title off the land in favour of the respondent No. 3 passed by various competent authorities including the Court. These documents shall be referred to at the appropriate time.