ORDER :

R. DEVDAS J.

The petitioner was granted fishing rights in respect of Bargavathi lake, situated at Uduvege Village, by the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat. The petitioner was initially granted rights on 09.01.2015, for a period of three years from 2014-17. However, it has been pointed by the learned counsel for respondent No.4 that the petitioner was in fact granted fishing rights in the year 2014 for one year and thereafter the petitioner filed a writ petition before this Court and during the pendency of the said writ petition, at the assurance of respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, writ petition was withdrawn and thereafter lease was granted for three years. However, the State of Karnataka, Department of Fisheries issued Government Order dated 31.03.2017, stating that the year 2016-17 was declared as drought period and there shall be an extension of one year with respect to the fishing rights granted for the year 2016-17 subject to the condition that the lease amount or licence amount was already paid by the licensees.

2. Consequently, respondent No.2-Village Panchayat passed a resolution dated 09.07.2018 to extend the period of license granted to the petitioner herein till 2018-19. However, in the very same resolution, decision was taken to extend the license period from 2019-2020 and 2020-21 also. It is noticeable that while the said resolution was being passed, the Panchayat Development Officer raised an objection that such decision would be contrary to the Government Order. Nevertheless, the panchayat proceeded to extend the license of the petitioner till October 2021.

3. Being aggrieved of the extension granted to the petitioner, respondent No.4 herein gave representation to the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, stating that extension could not have been granted. Nevertheless, when Village panchayat did not respond positively, respondent No.4 filed W.P.No.12990/2020 impleading petitioner herein as respondent No.5. Thereafter when the petitioner herein sought to deposit the bid amount in compliance of the resolution passed by the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, respondent No.2-Village panchayat, did not receive the said amount. Therefore petitioner herein also filed another writ petition in W.P.No.14507/2020 seeking directions to the respondent No.2-Village panchayat to receive the bid amount. Nevertheless, both the writ petitions viz., W.P.No.12990/2020 filed by the respondent No.4 herein and W.P.No.14507/2020 filed by petitioner herein were disposed of by order dated 12.02.2021, on the ground that fresh resolution dated 25.11.2020 has been passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat.

4. As per the resolution dated 25.11.2020, respondent No.2-Village panchayat took note of the communication dated 28.11.2020 said to have been made by the Department of Fisheries raising objections to the fact that from 2014-15 to 2020-21 October, fishing rights has been granted to the petitioner herein. The Government Orders stipulate that priority and preference should be given to fishing societies first and thereafter only when there is no eligible society to which the fishing rights could be granted, then the other persons could be granted fishing rights. However, respondent No.2-Village panchayat proceeds to hold that one another society namely Sri.Gangaparameshwari Multipurpose Fishermen Co-operative Society has not produced the required documents. Therefore it was not eligible for grant of fishing rights. Consequently, it was resolved that fishing rights with respect of Bargavathi lake shall be granted to respondent No.4 society herein for a period of three years. Consequently, the office order dated 14.01.2021, at Annexure-J was issued, granting fishing rights to the respondent No.4-Society. The petitioner being aggrieved by the resolution dated 13.01.2021 passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat and the office order dated 14.01.2021, has filed this writ petition.

5. Learned counsel Sri.M.R.Rajagopal, appearing for