RAMZAN MIAN Vs. EXECUTIVE ENGINEER P W D

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three writ applications have been heard together as a common question of law is involved in them, namely, the vires of the Bihar Public Land Encroachment Act (Act XV of 1956), hereinafter to be called "the Act".

(2.) The facts of C.W.J.C. Nos. 1121 and 1122 of 1968 are more or less similar. The eighteen petitioners of C. W. J. C. No. 1121 of 1968 have their shops oh the flanks of the Station Road and the Grand Trunk Road (Old) in the vicinity of Dehri-on-Sone in the district of Shahabad. According to the petitioners, the lands over which their shops stand were settlled with them by the Khasmahal. Department of the State of Bihar in the year 1948 in pursuance of the declaration made by the Government in the same year that refugees and other uprooted persons should be accommodated on public lands including the flanks of National Highways for establishing their small scale business. The petitioners allege in the application that ex parte orders under the provisions of the Act were obtained against them in the year 1965 by the Public Works Department of the Government of Bihar, which made a false claim that the lands over which the shops of the petitioners stood had been transferred to them. About a week before the petitioners filed the writ application in this Court, they were informed by the Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Dehri-on-Sone, Shahabad (respondent no. 1) that such orders had been passed against them and he threatened the petitioners that their shops would be demolished. These petitioners rely on Order No. 21 dated the 5th of April, 1956, passed by the Minister of the Public Works Department of the Government of Bihar to the effect that the settlements of the lands with the petitioners would continue till an alternative accommodation for their shops was made to them.

(3.) All the forty petitioners of C. W. J. C. No. 4122 of 1968 have their shops on the flanks of the Station Road in the vicinity of Dehri-on-Sone in the district of Shahabad. According to the petitioners, the lands over which they have their shops were settled with them by the District Board in between the year 1952 and the year 1954 in pursuance of the Government's declaration, referred to above. The petitioners allege that in the year 1956 the Public Works Department of the Government of Bihar on the basis of a false claim that the lands over which the shops of the petitioners stood were transferred to them obtained orders for the eviction of the petitioners under the provisions of the Act. The Minister of the Public Works Department of the Government of Bihar by his Order No. 21 dated the 5th of April, 1956, directed that the petitioners' settlement of the lands in question would stand till some alternative accomodation for their shops was given to them. The petitioners thereafter carried on their business without any hindrance in their shops which stand on the lands in question till a week before the filing of the writ application when they were threatened by the Executive Engineer (respondent no. 1) that their shops would be demolished.