JUDGMENT :

1. The present Petition has been filed by the Petitioner to challenge the letter/communication dated 16th February 2021 whereby Respondent No. 3, the City Survey Officer, Chembur (“CSO”) has refused to mutate the name of the Petitioner in the revenue records in respect of the subject property, for want of an NOC from the Collector. The Petitioner is aggrieved by the insistence on the NOC of the Collector as a pre-condition for mutating its name in the revenue records.

2. Shorn of unnecessary details, the short facts that are relevant for the present dispute are set out hereafter.

2.1 A grant of the subject property was made by the Mamlatadar, South Salsette, Taluka Bombay Suburban District, to one Basantrai Motiram, under Rule 43 of the then prevailing Bombay Land Revenue Rules, 1921 by way of a Form HH (Exhibit ‘A’ to the Petition) on 27th August 1946. It is the case of the Petitioner that the original owner, i.e. Basantrai Motiram, constructed seventeen flats and two garages on the subject property. The Petitioner is a society of flat purchasers of the above flats, registered on 2nd October 1967.

2.2 It is the further case of the Petitioner that the legal heirs of the orig