The two petitioners who are a Company incorporated under the Companies Act and engaged in the business of civil construction activities have chosen to move this Court questioning amongst others, the order dated 10.8.2013/20.9.2013 passed by the respondent No.2, the Commissioner, Patna Municipal Corporation in Misc. Case No. 1 of 2013 filed by the respondent No.6 bearing Memo No. 3792 dated 24.9.2013 whereby the respondent Commissioner has been pleased to cancel the revised sanction plan submitted on behalf of the petitioners on 7.11.2012 as well as the original sanction plan dated 16.2.2011 as contained in Annexure-2.

2. For arriving at a just conclusion it would be necessary to briefly enumerate the sequence of events leading to the order impugned in this application as manifest from the records.

3. One Rai Bahadur T.N.Banerjee purchased 141 kathas of agricultural land situated at Bailey road, Patna in the year 1940-41. The land owner passed away on 28.7.1966 and the property in question was inherited by his only son Dr. P.K. Banarjee. The said Dr. P.K. Banerjee executed two registered deeds of gift in favour of his two daughters admeasuring 62.5 decimals each from his total holding of 141 kathas in the year 1976-77.

4. The Collector, Patna initiated proceedings under the provisions of the Urban Land Ceiling Act, 1976 however upon repeal of the said Act in the year 2007, the proceedings were dropped.

5. In between, three agreements for sale was entered into between the land owners and Ramesh Prasad and Vijay Prakash for sale of their shares on a consideration of Rs. 2.50 lacs per katha and pursuant whereto, a sum of Rs. 15,00,000/- was handed over to the land owner by way of advance consideration. The three agreements to sale are placed at Annexure 11 series and are dated 16.11.1998, 23,12.1998 and 3.1.1999.

6. One of the co-vendee to the agreement to sale namely Ramesh Prasad died in a car accident in October, 1999. Since the expression ‘vendee’ included the legal representative/legal heirs, the co-vendee namely Vijay Prakash along with the widow of Ramesh Prasad namely Pratibha Prasad who is the respondent No.6 herein by a written document offered to enhance the consideration amount to Rs. 4.08 lacs per katha as the circle rate at the relevant time was Rs. 4 lac per katha. It is stated that the land owners initially declined to accept the offer but after rounds of negotiation, they agreed to sale the land in question at the rate of Rs. 13 lacs per katha subject to the condition that if the said consideration amount was not paid on or before 6.6.2008, all previous agreements between the parties would stand cancelled. The agreement was reduced to writing and copy whereof is part of Annexure-11 series at page 327.

7. It is the case of petitioners that the vendees failed to honour their commitment and as a consequence the land owners terminated the agreements and communicated their decision through letter dated 7.6.2008. Following the termination of agreement, the land owners executed four registered sale deeds before the District Sub Registrar, Patna in favour of the petitioners and one another, copy whereof is placed at Annexures-D, E, F and G to the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent No.6 and the vacant peaceful physical possession of the entire area admeasuring 141 kathas was handed over to them. Following the transfer of ownership, the land in question was mutated in the name of the petitioners in the revenue records as well as the records of the Municipal Corporation.

8. After acquiring title, ownership and possession over the land in question, the petitioners submitted a planning report before the respondent-Corporation on 18.3.2010 duly certified by their Architect and which was followed by an affidavit sworn under Section 38 of the erstwhile Bihar Regional Development Authority Act, 1981 stating therein that the land was free from any encumbrances.

9. In between, three title suits were filed at the