MD.RIZWAN Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER is the resident of Mohalla Andheribag situated on the Bhinda of Mirza Khan Talab, Laheriasarai in the town of Darbhanga and has filed this application for issuance of writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to provide adequate civic amenities, such as, roads and streets, to remove the water logging and such other civic amenities.

(2.) MR . Durga Nand Jha appears on behalf of the petitioner. He submits that the inhabitants of Mohalla Andheribag in the adjoining area of Bhinda Mirza Khan Talab have both their right as well as legitimate expectations from the State and its authorities that they would be provided adequate facility for roads/streets. In this context, he has stated that in fact there was already an old road as shown in the survey map of Darbhanga town connecting the area of Mohalla Andheribag and its adjacent Bhinda of Mirza Khan Talab, Laheriasarai through the roads of Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (D.M.C.H.). It has, however, been alleged that such facility of existing road and their access have been illegally obstructed by the Superintendent of D.M.C.H. who had suddenly closed the outlet road connecting the said Mohalla through the roads of the D.M.C.H. It has, therefore, been submitted by Mr. Jha that this Court should issue a direction to the respondents including the Superintendent of the D.M.C.H. to remove the wall in order to restore facility of the old road to the people of the Mohalla. Mr. Satyabir Bharti, Junior Counsel to learned Additional Advocate General No. Ill has appeared on behalf of the State and has referred to the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Superintendent of D.M.C.H. (respondent no. 5) wherein it has been denied that the roads of the D. M.C.H. within its campus are the roads as shown in the survey map. In this regard, it has been specifically asserted in paragraph no. 4 of the counter affidavit that roads within the campus of the D.M.C.H. is the property of the D.M.C.H. and has been constructed for the use of the doctors, students and the patients of the D.M.C.H. and the same has also been well surrounded by a boundary wall for their safety. In the said counter affidavit, it has been stated that ever since the inception, when the D.M.C.H. came to be established in the year 1925, it was well protected by a boundary wall surrounding the entire D.M.C.H. building. It is only later on that unauthorized colony had sprung up in the vicinity of the D.M.C.H. and Andheribag Mohalla is one of them where residential buildings have been constructed without sanctioned plan and/ or without making any provision for proper road/street. It has been alleged that the residents of the said Mohalla Andheribag infact in the year 1982 had demolished the boundary wall of D.M.C.H. to avail the facility of the roads of D.M.C.H. and the authorities of the D.M.C.H. including the then Superintendent of the D.M.C.H. had brought this fact to the notice of the law & order authorities. It has been claimed that a Committee of senior officials including the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, Darbhanga and the then Chief Engineer, P.W.D., Darbhanga had inspected the spot and had found that the wall has been demolished by the inhabitants of the said Mohalla Andheribag in an unauthorized manner. It has been further stated in the counter affidavit that the demolished boundary wall was reconstructed in the year 1983 and the access of the public residing in Mohalla Andheribag through the inside road of the D.M.C.H. was stopped in the years 1983 -84. It has been further submitted that the said action of denial of access to the residents of Mohalla Andheribag through the campus of the D.M.C.H. and its roads was assailed by one of the resident of that mohalla, namely, Shri Shivjee Ram who had filed a Title Suit bearing No. 80 of 1984 in the Court of the 1st Additional Munsif, Darbhanga for removal of the boundary wall of the D.M.C.H. but the said suit was ultimately dismissed as not pressed on 5.12.1986.

(3.) MR . Bharti has also drawn our attention towards the fact that allowing access to the inhabitants of Mohalla Andheribag through the roads of the D.M.C.H. within its campus would be against the public interest as well as the interest of the institution because these roads cover the Women 'sHostel, Gynaecological Ward, Girls ' Hostel and Eye Ward of the D.M.C.H. He has also referred to that part of affidavit of the Superintendent of D.M.C.H. explaining that there would be threat to life and property of the doctors, nurses and patients of the D.M.C.H. in case the prayer made in the writ application with regard to providing access to the residents of the Mohalla Andheribag through the roads of D.M.C.H. is allowed by this Court.