BULA RAM Vs. SUPERINTENDING CANAL OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner impugns the order of the Superintending Canal Officer dated March 16, 1978 (Annexure P-4) whereby he set aside the order of the Divisional Canal Officer, passed in favour of the petitioner.

(2.) Briefly the background of the case is that respondent No. 3 made an application before the Deputy Collector seeking alteration of the Warabandi (turn of water) on the ground that his area was not being properly irrigated. As per the order of the Deputy Collector, Annexure P.1, he accepted this stand of the respondent and as a result of some sort of enquiry the details of which are neither mentioned nor otherwise shown to me, shifted the turn of the respondent from Serial No. 34 to No. 28/1. This order of the Deputy Collector was set aside by the Divisional Canal Officer primarily on the ground that the Deputy Collector though had mentioned that he had held some sort of enquiry before ordering this change in the Warabandi, yet as a matter of fact, neither the nature of that enquiry nor the factum of the same having been held was established from the record. On a revision against this order of the Divisional Canal Officer by respondent No. 3 as already indicated, the Superintending Canal Officer has set aside the order of the Divisional Canal Officer saying that he is restoring the order of the Deputy Collector ''in the interest of better irrigation''. According to the learned counsel this order of the Superintending Canal Officer is totally a non-speaking order as he has not indicated as to what sort of enquiry had been held by the Deputy Collector or before ordering the change in the Warabandi and on that account the order deserves to be set aside. In somewhat similar circumstances in Khairu Ram and others v. Shankar Devi and others, 1983 0 PunLJ 362, I had the occasion to consider this aspect of the matter and had set aside the order of the Superintending Canal Officer.

(3.) For the reasons stated in that judgment, I allow this petition and while setting aside the order of the Superintending Canal Officer (Annexure P.4) send the case back to him for deciding it afresh in accordance with law.