IMPORTANT POINT
Resumption of land – Re-entry without reference to law cannot be sustained.

JUDGMENT :

S.V.N. Bhatti, J.

1. The Appeals arise from the Judgment dated 24.01.2018 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 9988 of 2006 on the file of High Court of Orissa, Cuttack. The respondents in the Writ Petition are the appellants in S.L.P.(C) No. 14949 of 2018 and S.L.P.(C) No. 20490 of 2018. The D.No.26693 of 2018 is at the instance of the Writ Petitioner. The High Court, through the Judgment dated 24.01.2018, firstly held that the land admeasuring acres 4.800 decimals, leased out to original petitioner Shri GP Panda has been properly identified. The High Court also held that initiating resumption proceedings in Resumption Case No. 1 of 2006 by the Tehsildar, Bhubaneswar, is illegal. Hence, the substantive reliefs against the Judgment or claim in the Appeals filed by the respondents in the Writ Petition.

2. One Surgeon, Vice Admiral GP Panda, filed Writ Petition against the State of Orissa and three others. Pending Writ Petition, Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (for short, ‘IDCO’) was impleaded as Respondent No.5.

3. The Writ Prayers, in effect, are directed against the respondents not to interfere with the lawful possession and enjoyment of the Writ Petitioner over an extent of acres 4.800 decimals in Plot No. 1288 under Khata 420, village Pathargadia (for short, ‘petition land’) and restrain the continuation of R.C. No. 1 of 2006 initiated by Tehsildar, Bhubaneswar/Appellant No.8 herein. The dispute, in fact, or the enforceable right claimed by the petitioner could be appreciated by taking note of the following admitted circumstances and also by considering the disputed facts.

4. Surgeon Vice Admiral Ganesh Prasad Panda applied for allotment of Government land under an existing policy enabling the assignment of Government land to the armed personnel who have participated on the frontline of the North-East Border in the Indo-China war. Surgeon Vice Admiral Ganesh Prasad Panda was an Ex-Army personnel who satisfied the criterion for assignment of Government land to Ex-Defence personnel. The credentials and the applicability of the eligibility criteria for the assignment of Government land to the armed personnel who participated in the Indo-China war were examined by the Home Department of the State. Through Communication, District Office, vide 60990/S/4/350 dated 19.04.1979, it was accepted that the said Surgeon Vice Admiral Ganesh Prasad Panda was eligible for assignment of Government land under the Policy in vogue. The Tehsildar, Bhubaneswar, in W.L. Case No. 1686 of 1979, on 07.05.1981, settled the petition land in favour of Surgeon Vice Admiral Ganesh Prasad Panda. The land was identified with the sketch. The consequence of the settlement, one can infer, is possession of settled land was made over to Surgeon Vice Admiral Ganesh Prasad Panda.

4.1 The District Collector, Bhubaneswar, noticing an alleged infringement/illegality in the instant assignment, had taken up Revision Case No. 59 of 1982 against the Assignment Order dated 07.05.1981. On 13.01.1983 (Annexure-P2), the District Magistrate, Bhubaneswar, dismissed the Revision Petition. The first petitioner claimed to be in continuous and uninterrupted possession of petition land. In 1989, as is evident from the record, the Writ Petitioner got the assigned property surveyed, settled, and specifically got earmarked with boundaries. The petition land consists of an extent of acres 4.800 decimals in Plot Number 1288 out of the total extent of 52.470 acres. The Writ Petitioner claims to have bought the petition land under cultivation and, later on, converted the petition land into a farmhouse. The petitioner claimed actual enjoyment of the petition property.

5. The State addressed a letter dated 03.04.2001 (Annexure-P3) to the Tehsildar, informing that State identified a patch of Government land measuring 52.470 acres in Pathargadia under Bhubaneswar Tehsil, adjacent to Infocity. The State desired Tehsildar to process the alienation proposal of land identi