ORDER

Any person, who has a grievance against the State, within the meaning of under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, must have a forum for redressal thereof. Because of small land holdings in the State of Bihar and also because of inadequate implementation of land reforms in the State, land related disputes have substantially increased. Evidently, in order to provide fora to aggrieved parties to deal with the situation, the State Legislature of Bihar has enacted a number of enactments from 2009 to 2015. The first step in this direction is enactment of Bihar Land Disputes Resolution Act, 2009 (Bihar Act 4 of 2010) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Land Disputes Resolution Act’), which came into force from the date of its publication in official gazette on 08.01.2010. In the same year, Bihar Land Tribunal Act, 2009 (Bihar Act 9 of 2009) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Land Tribunal Act’) was enacted, which was published in the official gazette on 03.09.2009. Disputes relating to mutation are very common in the State of Bihar and for quick and effective resolution of such disputes, Bihar Land Mutation Act, 2011 (Bihar Act 23 of 2011) has been enacted, which was published in the official gazette on 22.12.2011. In addition, Bihar Agriculture Land (Conversion for Non-Agriculture Purposes) Act, 2010 (Bihar Act 11 of 2010) and Bihar Special Survey and Settlement Act, 2011 (Bihar Act 24 of 2011) have been enacted. In 2015, the Bihar Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act, 2015, has been enacted, which came into force on 05.06.2016. Statutory Rules have also been framed under all these Act for carrying out the purposes of the Act. This Court, dealing with the writ applications on land related matters has experienced that the litigants generally have a grievance in relation to such disputes, most of which are covered by either of the enactments as noted above.

2. The present case is an example. This application has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking direction to the respondents including the District Magistrate, Nalanda, Deputy Collector land Reforms, Hilsa, Nalanda, Circle Officer, Tharthari, Hilsa, Nalanda, Superintendent of Police, Nalanda and Officer-in-Charge, Tharthari Police Station, Nalanda, to measure and demarcate the piece of land, which the petitioner is said to have purchased through a registered sale-deed.

3. It is the petitioner’s grievance that the petitioner approached the Circle officer, Tharthari, for demarcation after measurement of the land in question pursuant to which the Circle Officer, Tharthari, had ordered for demarcation, but because of the intervention of the Officer-in-Charge, Tharthari Police Station, measurement and demarcation of the land could not be carried out. It is asserted that 13.12.2018 was the date fixed for measurement/demarcation of the land and notices were accordingly issued to all boundary raiyats for their presence by the Circle Officer, but because of the intervention of the Police Officer, the said exercise could not be undertaken. In response to a query made by this Court, as to whether the petitioner ever approached the higher authorities of the district administration raising the grievance, which has been raised in the present writ application, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has personally met some of the authorities, but has not filed any case or written application.

4. This trend of the litigants approaching the High Court invoking extraordinary writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has made the Court enquire and investigate the fora available to the litigants under the various provisions of various enactments, as noted above, visibly enacted to provide quicker and more effective relief to the litigants by executive or quasi judicial process. For the said reason, I will be briefly referring to the purpose, scope, forum/fora available and the procedure prescribed under the above noted enact