CHIRANJIV LOHIA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. S.D. Sanjay for the petitioners and Mr. Sanjay Singh, S.C. IX appearing on behalf of the State.

(2.) THERE are four petitioners in this case who have come to this Court against the threatened demolition of portions of their houses for the alleged reason that the houses encroached upon some public land. The procedure adopted by the respondent authorities is all too familiar by now. After taking some measurements, according to the petitioners taken behind their back and without giving them a prior notice, the authorities came to hold and believe that the houses were encroaching upon some public land. They further deemed that the orders passed by this Court in CWJC No. 2290/1990 gave them the licence to act unilaterally and to order demolition of the houses on the basis of the measurements taken by them. They accordingly put some red marks on the houses indicating the extent to which houses encroached upon public land. In case the petitioners carried out the demolition on their own, well and good failing which the houses would be demolished forcibly (to the extent indicated by the red marks) and the expenses realised from the petitioners.

(3.) IN the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State, it is stated that all these three plots are part of cadestral survey plot no.541, under khata no.221 in revenue village Hasanpur Surat, Thana no.211. It is further stated that in the cadestral survey records, the plot was shown as public land being road. I may just pause here to note that the cadestral survey operations were conducted in the last decade of the previous century, that is to say, about a century ago. From the statements made in the counter affidavit, it would appear that the road, the encroachment of which is alleged by the respondent authorities lay at the back of the petitioners houses.