ROHIT KUMAR MADHUR Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) At the request of learned counsel for the petitioners, the defects, as pointed out by the office, are ignored.

(2.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the entire proceeding of Public Land Encroachment Case No. 02 of 2022-23 initiated by the Circle Officer, Kuru (the respondent no. 6) as well as the notices issued to the petitioner by the said respondent initially under Sec. 3 and subsequently under Sec. 6(2) of the Bihar (now Jharkhand) Public Land Encroachment Act, 1956 (in short, "the Act, 1956") whereby he has been directed to remove the alleged encroachment from the land in question.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioner purchased the land appertaining to old Khata No. 2, old Plot no. 776 corresponding to new Khata No. 422, plot no. 446, Mouza- Kuru measuring an area of 3 1/2 decimals (hereinafter to be referred as "the said land") from one Awadhesh Singh vide registered sale deed dtd. 1/2/2005. After purchasing the said land, the petitioner constructed house as well as a hospital namely "Madhur Seva Sadan' over the same in the year 2006 which is being run by his father, the registration of which has provisionally been renewed for one year vide certificate dtd. 24/6/2022. Surprisingly, the respondent no. 4 issued notice as contained in Form-I under Sec. 3 of the Act, 1996 to the petitioner on 31/3/2022 alleging that he had encroached public land to the extent of 0.54 acre over the said land while making illegal construction over the same. Pursuant to the said notice, the petitioner appeared before the respondent no. 4 and filed reply producing relevant documents relating to the land in question, however the same was not at all considered by the respondent no. 4 while passing the final order under Sec. 6(1)(e) of the Act, 1956. Subsequently, the petitioner was issued notice by the respondent no. 4 in Form-II under Sec. 6(2) of the Act, 1956 whereby he was called upon to remove the alleged encroachment within 15 days.