ASHARFI PRASAD SAHA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petitioners, 192 in all, or the members of their family are businessmen, doctors, teachers, professors, engineers, lawyers and nurses employed in the establishments in or around Patna. They claim to have constructed houses on some of the plots of the land acquired by the State for the Patna Improvement trust and now the Patna Regional development Authority (hereinafter "p. R. D. A. " in Land Acquisition case No. 63/61-62 and transferred to Budha Grih nirman Sahyog Samiti Ltd. (Hereinafter "society". They have filed this writ application against the State of bihar (respondent No. 1) , the Collector, patna (respondent No. 2) the P. R. D. A. (respondent No. 4) , the District Land acquisition Officer (respondent No. 5) and the Society (respondent No. 6) and have prayed for the following reliefs: (i) Issuance of direction, order or writ in the nature of writ of mandamus/certiorari commanding the respondents to regularise and settle the petitioners on plots of land on which their houses are existing since more than two decades and which they have constructed after observing all the formalities, which a common citizen under normal situation is expected to observe under the law. (ii) Issuance of direction, order, writ or proper declaration commanding the respondents that the respondents Society has failed to act as per the terms of agreement on which the lands were allotted to it, for the public purpose, and have acted in their personal interest ignoring the public good and in the changed circumstances, the public purpose for which the land was sought to be acquired shall be fulfilled only by settling the residents of the locality, who are residing there, since decades after getting proper sanction from the authorities including the respondent, p. R. D. A. and Patna Municipal Corporation. (iii) Issuance of direction, order, writ or proper declaration commanding the respondents that no public purpose shall be fulfilled by evicting the petitioners from their respective houses constructed over the plots in the area, only for the purposes of allotment of the same land to others for permitting them to construct afresh house/houses over the said land, after fresh allotment ignoring the displacement of the petitioners from their home. (iv) Issuance of direction order or writ in the nature of writ of mandamus/certiorari commanding the respondents that the equity also demands that the petitioners be regularised on their respective plots of land on which their respective house/houses have been constructed and demolition of the house in the locality shall cause loss of huge national wealth, resulting in the loss of life, livelihood and liberty of the petitioners to settle in any part of the country within the territory of India. (v) Issuance of any other direction or directions to which the petitioners may be entitled to in the facts and under the circumstances of this case.

(2.) The case of the petitioners is that in the year 1947 when India became independent the present township of patna also included some scattered villages in the area. There were open fields in and around the town which were being used for cultivation and other purposes by the natives of the town for means of their livelihood. Since ours was a welfare State and Patna happened to be the capital of the State, the citizens from different villages and from other remote areas of the State were attracted to the State capital. Since there was no proper and adequate amenities and houses where they could live they started purchasing piece/plots of land in and around Patna for constructing their own houses with a view to settle in the capital of the State. The State Govt. with a view to have a planned development of the city of Patna established the patna Improvement Trust, a local self-body for preparing a scheme for planned development of the town. The state Govt. in co-ordination with the patna Improvement Trust now reconstituted as the Patna Regional development Authority acquired an area of land in the Central Patna for a planned development and establishment of a residential colony presently known as Rajendra Nagar colony. While the execution of the aforesaid scheme by the patna Improvement Trust in the said rajendra Nagar Colony was in progress, the unplanned development of the boring Road area also attracted the attention of the authorities. Accordingly survey work was taken up by the Patna improvement Trust with a view to formulate a developed scheme for the boring Road area. A development scheme was in fact prepared which was approved by the Board of Trustees in a meeting held on 30th September, 1957 and four alternatives were proposed. The decision of the State Govt. was sought in the matter and all these are referred to by the S. P. Verma Committee constituted for considering the development work and the function of the P. I. T which submitted its report in 1969. A true copy of the relevant portion of the S. P. Verma Committee report has been filed as Annexure-1. Meanwhile the Society (respondent No. 6) was also established which sought to acquire land for construction of its housing colony. The Society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act. comprised of members who were in authority and wielded a lot of influence. The Society succeeded in acquiring a land measuring 24. 52 acres. The Society entered into an agreement with the government of Bihar published in the bihar Gazette on 25th November, 1959 and the memorandum of agreement state the purpose of the said acquisition of the land which included construction of houses, roads, parks, tanks, play grounds, schools, library, guest-house and erection of 100 statue of Lord budha. The petitioners have referred to in detail the contents of various clauses of the said agreement which among other things contained a provision in clause (7) that in case of any breach by the Society of any of the terms and conditions of this agreement, the Government shall be entitled to re-enter on the whole of the said land without payment of any compensation to the Society. The petitioners have traced out the history including the back ground for the aforesaid acquisition as contained in verma Committee report including a letter sent by the Chairman of the P. I. T. dated 12th December 1959 requesting the Director of Land Acquisition to reject the proposal for acquisition of land by the Society as the area sought to be acquired was included in the Boring road area scheme of the P. I. T. for development of that area. Despite the fact that the Secretary, Local Self government supported the objection of the Chairman, P. I. T, the Society succeeded in prevailing upon these objections raised by the State authorities and succeeded in getting the acquisition of the land made.

(3.) To cut a long story short the society after the acquisition of the aforesaid 25. 52 acres of land made a further acquisition for 32 acres of land in its vicinity and an agreement was entered into between the Society and the Government of Bihar in that regard. However, the Hon'ble High court set aside the acquisition with liberty to the Government to acquire the land in accordance with law. The p. I. T. again moved for acquisition of a total of 64. 49 acres of land including the 32 acres of land which was earlier acquired for the Society but was set aside by the High Court. The entire area of more than 64 acres of land was sought to be acquired under Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act invoking the special power of the Government alleging it to be a case of urgency. The society had mismanaged the land measuring 24. 52 acres which was handed over to it for the purposes indicated above. Despite the criticism of the Society regarding its mismanagement, the Society managed an agreement with the P. I. T. for transfer of further 30 acres of land to it and for which admittedly only possession was given to the P. I. T. The petitioners claim that right and title over the said piece of land were not yet delivered to the p. I. T. and the Society agreed to take the possession of the land measuring 30 acres with the liability of encroachment over it. The petitioners submit that most of the area falling within this 30 acres of land were purchased by the intending builders for their residential houses and the houses were already existing as admitted in the deed of agreement entered into between the Society and the P. I. T. When the matter was brought to the notice of the State Govt. the Secretary Urban Development department wrote a letter dated 30-3-75 to the Chairman, P. I. T pointing out that the transfer of the land by the said agreement dated 11-1-75 by the P. I. T to the Society was totally unwarranted. The Trust was fully aware of the fact that proper sanction to the scheme was not even given by the Government and without obtaining permission of the government the transfer of the said lands was not proper. A true copy of the said letter dated 30-5-75 has been filed as Annexure-3. The petitioners allege that the malafide and motivated mischievous act of the Society can be gathered from the fact that while only the possession over the said 30 acres of land was handed over to the Society on 11-1-75 without any right, title and interest over it by the P. I. T. which itself was lacking the same and further the land was handed over with a clear understanding that the Society was being given the same with liability of encroachment upon it, the. Society, it is alleged, acted in a most hurried manner by allotting the plots in the said land by absolute deed of sale in favour of the alleged members in the year 1975 itself in spite of wide protest from all corners. The petitioners have enclosed a photo copy of the relevant portion of the sale deed executed by the Society in favour of one Raj Laxmi Devi marked as Annexure-4. The sale-deed was executed by the Society in printed form prepared by the Society and column no. 5 of the said deed of sale claimed that the right title and interest of the society in the land had been transferred to the alleged purchasers. The petitioners alleged that this is out and out a fraudulent act on the part of the society which cannot be sustained by any principle of law, equity, or justice and the Society and its executive members were/are liable to be prosecuted criminally. They are also liable to return the amount of money which they had illegally extracted from the alleged purchasers. The irregularities committed in the allotment of the land by the Society drew the attention of the general public and an enquiry committee was set up by the Bihar Legislative council. The Committee was constituted after 20-3-75 after the matter was raised in the Council regarding irregularities committed by the Society in illegal allotment of the land to the persons. The committee formulated a number of issues to be considered and enquired into. The petitioners alleged that the committee in its report came to a positive conclusion that 32 acres of land was allotted to persons in a most arbitrary manner many of whom were not even members of the Society at the time of their allotment. The Committee also came to the conclusion that the allotment of 32 acres of land to the society by the P. I. T. was not proper and committee also went on to observe that by acquiring the land of the P. I. T, the society which had been reduced to a society of the capitalists and wealthy persons were intending to be benefitted. The committee is reported to have observed in their report that the main culprit for the said transaction was the then Chairman of the P. I. T. Sri b. N. Basu. The Committee described it to be quite strange that on 11th january, 1975 (15 January 1975 mentioned in the writ petition is an obvious mistake) the P. I. T considered the matter, took the decision to transfer 32 acres of land to the Society by an agreement on the same day and that on that very day the agreement was entered upon and the actual transfer was also made and the entire process of transfer and registration of the land was completed on that very day. The petitioners nave also extensively quoted from committee's report wherein there is a reference to a decision of the State cabinet dated 23rd September 1975 that the land must not be allotted to the said Society. On the contrary a decision was taken that the land instead of being released be used for the poor people living in the hutments for their settlement and other public purposes. Irregularities in the allotment of land by the Society have also been extensively quoted by the committee in its report and the committee recorded the observation that the then Secretary of the society had formed a caucus for grabbing the land in illegal and arbitrary manner for the members of his caucus. The co-ordinator of the fact-finding committee of the Bihar Legislative council recommended that 32 acres of land transferred to the Society by the p. I. T. was not proper and also recommended action against Sri B. N. Basu, chairman P. I. T. as also against the then president and the Secretary of the society for irregularities committed by them in the allotment of land and plots as per the provisions of law. The third and the most vital recommendation of the committee in its report referred to by the writ-petition is that the land was handed over to the Society by the P. I. T. in a most arbitrary manner and it was recommended that the land be taken back and handed over to the actual land holders. A true copy of the report submitted by the Committee in 1978 constituted by the Bihar Legislative council has been filed as Annexure-5.