The court held that the historical ownership and title claims of the Trust under sanctioned documents were valid and should not be dismissed by administrative authorities or through flawed appeals, emphasizing process integrity under the MLRC.

JUDGMENT :

GAURI GODSE, J.

1. This petition is filed by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Corporation’) to challenge the judgment and order passed by the learned Revenue Minister of the State Government in a revision application filed by respondent no.1-Trust (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Trust’) under Section 257 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (‘ MLRC ’).

2. The revision application before the State Government was filed by the Trust under Section 2 57 of the MLRC to challenge the order dated 6^th June 2017, passed by the Deputy Director of Land Records (‘DDLR’) in an appeal preferred by the Corporation under Section 2 47 of the MLRC . The appeal before the DDLR was preferred by the Corporation to challenge the order dated 8^th December 2014 passed by the District Superintendent of Land Records (‘District Superintendent’) in an appeal preferred by the Corporation under Section 2 47 of the MLRC . The Corporation had preferred the appeal before the District Superintendent to challenge the order dated 4^th August 2008, passed by the City Survey Officer. The date of the order is wrongly typed as 4^th July 2008 by the City Survey Officer; hence, the correct date is clarified in the order of DDLR. By the said order, the City Survey Officer issued directions to enter the name of the Trust as “original holder” in respect of an area admeasuring 7 Hectares 89 Ares of the land situated adjacent to survey no.1, excluding the area covered by the lake at village Bhosari. The City Survey Officer issued directions to create a property card for the said area in the name of the Trust by numbering it as CTS No. 4579. The City Survey Officer passed the said order in accordance with the directions issued by the Superintendent of Land Records on 16^th July 2008.

3. The Superintendent of Land Records had directed the City Survey Officer to allot the last city survey number for the area adjacent to survey no.1 by excluding the area covered by the lake, by holding an inquiry as contemplated under Section 122 and Section 2 0 (2) of the MLRC . The Corporation is aggrieved by the directions issued by the City Survey Officer to enter the name of the Trust as the original holder of CTS No. 4579 for an area admeasuring 7 Hectares 89 Ares adjacent to Survey No.1 by excluding the area covered by the lake (this area is hereinafter referred to as “the said land”).

4. For a better understanding of the controversy and for examining the rival submissions, the following dates and events would be relevant:

a) 8^th July 1997 : The Corporation entered into an agreement with the Trust for acquiring an area of 1,05,400 square meters of the open land situated adjacent to the lake at Survey No.1 of village Bhosari, Pimpri, District Pune. The area proposed for acquisition was described in green on the attached map. It is stated in the agreement that in the Government record, the name of the Trust was entered as the owner of the said land. Hence, the Corporation entered into an agreement with the Trust for acquiring the said area.

b) 20^th November 1999 : Pursuant to the agreement executed between the Corporation and the Trust, the Director of the Town Planning Department submitted a valuation report of the area proposed to be acquired at Rs. 1,62,53,631/-.

c) 25^th November 2004 : The learned District Collector (“Collector”) intimated to the Corporation that, as the area proposed to be acquired is not entered in the reve