DISTRICT BAR ASSOCIATION, DEOGHAR Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been registered as Public Interest Litigation on the basis of letter dated 9th September, 2011 addressed to the Chief Justice, Jharkhand High Court at Ranchi by the District Bar Association, Deoghar. In the letter of the District Bar Association, Deoghar, it has been mentioned that matter of the land scam in the area was considered by the District Bar Association, Deoghar by convening an urgent meeting and it was found that a huge land scam occurred and Bhumafias with the connivance of the concerned Revenue Officers, including employees working under them conspired to loot away the public land, which is non transferable and which was Jamabandi raiyati land as well as Gochar and Pokhara land and for that purpose several documents have been forged and large number of mutation orders have been passed by the Revenue Authorities, on the basis of bogus land acquisition orders and gave colour of transferability in the nature of the land and there is every likelihood that the evidence is destroyed and damaged and in that sequence old records may also be tampered with. An inquiry was conducted by the administration and a Deoghar PS Case No.260 of 2011 has already been registered by lodging FIR under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The investigation is going on by the Central Bureau of Instigation. During this investigation, large number of documents which were collected departmentally and were kept in sealed box in the Record Room of Deoghar was stolen. Finding this situation, an enquiry was conducted by the Additional Collector, Deoghar in presence of the District Land Acquisition Officer and Circle Officer.

(3.) The inquiry report dated 6th September, 2011 is shocking. In the inquiry report, it is mentioned that one Sunil Kumar son of Jyotendra Poddar was used to be called in the Establishment Section of the Department as per the need . As per the information received, before one day to the incident dated 30th August, 2011 i.e. 29th August,2011 in afternoon the said Sunil Kumar came to the Record Room. This Sunil Kumar is the son of former employee of the department in the Record Room and who was in service uptoo 31st January, 2011. It has come on record that because of the poor vision of said Jyotendra Poddar , his son Sunil Kumar used to come to the Record Room to do the work of his father and used to sign on the Attendance Register for his father. He continued to work there for a longer period and, therefore, he acquired good experience in handling the records of the Record Room. Because of that reason, he was used to be called for getting help in work of the Record Room. It came on record that once in the year 2010 the said Sunil Kumar was found removing some important pages from the record of Revenue Execution Register and he was caught when he was keeping those documents in his pocket. From his pocket, three documents were recovered but no action was taken against him "in good faith" and this matter was not reported in writing anywhere. Because of this incident, the employeeJyotendra Poddar was transferred. Inspite of having knowledge of all these things, the said Sunil Kumar was allowed to handle the records in the record room.