The Vice-Chairman of a municipality does not have the jurisdiction to revoke a building sanctioned plan unless specifically empowered by law.

1. This is an appeal preferred by the appellants against a judgment dated April 18, 2013 passed in the matter of Tarun Kanti Adhikary v. State of West Bengal & Others (In Re: W.P. No. 1096 (W) of 2013).

2. The appellants were the respondent Nos. 8, 9 and 10 in the above writ application. The operative portion of the above order is quoted below:

"The admitted position is that the order revoking the sanction dated March 26, 2013 issued by the Vice-Chairman of the Municipality is vitiated by an incurable jurisdiction error. He had no authority to issue the order.

For these reasons, I dispose of the WP ordering as follows.

The of the Vice-Chairman of the Municipality dated March 26, 2013 revoking the sanction is hereby set aside. No cost. Certified Xerox.

Sd/-

Jayanta Kumar Biswas, J."

3. While delivering the impugned judgment, the learned Single Judge took into consideration the facts and circumstances as follows:

A building plan was sanctioned by the respondent-Municipality in favour of the respondent No. 1/writ petitioner bearing No. 7(7)/RB dated 02/11/12 for construction of a building on the plot of land lying and situated at Sakshi Gopal Para in Plot No. 13028, Mouza- Bishnupur, Municipality-Bishnupur, J.L. No. 100, Khatian No. 4523, District-Bankura. The appellants submitted letter of objection to the respondent-Municipality alleging encroachment of the portion of adjacent "Rasta" lying and situated in LR Plot No. 13040, L.R. Khatian No. 13481, Mouza-Bishnupur.

4. Consequent thereupon the Vice-Chairman of the respondent-Municipality revoked the aforesaid building sanctioned plan by a letter dated March 26, 2013, The above order is set out below:

"To

Tarun Adhikary,

Sub : Sakhigopalpara,

Ward No. 7, Bishnupur.

Ref. : In continuations of this offices Memo No. 2852/XI-8 dated 12.03.2013, the undersigned is hereby direct not to proceed with the construction over Plot No. 13040 (hal), (encroached by you as reported by the block land and land reforms officer vide case No. 15/MP/13 u/s 144 Cr.P.C.) forthwith.

Therefore the approved plan vide No. 7(7)/RB dated 02.11.2012 I revoked from this date until further order as the construction commenced by you is not in conformity with the approved plan.

Vice-Chairman,

Bishnupur Municipality"

5. The respondent No. 1 herein filed the writ application under reference challenging the above order on the ground that the Vice-Chairman of the Municipality had passed the order without jurisdiction. The above writ application was taken up by the learned Single Judge on April 18, 2013. After considering the submissions made on behalf of the writ petitioner/respondent No. 1 and the respondent-Municipality the above writ application was disposed of by virtue of the order impugned in this appeal.

6. It is submitted by Mrs. Usha Maity, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the appellants, that the order impugned to this appeal was passed ex parte without serving any notice upon them.

7. It is also submitted by Mrs. Maity that the order was passed by the Vice Chairman of the Municipality in exercise of his power conferred by Section 19 of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act, 1993). It is further added by Mrs. Maity that the Chairman of the respondent Municipality was absent at the material point of time. Therefore, the power of the Chairman of the above respondent-Municipality, as prescribed in Section 16 of the said Act, 1993, could be exercised by the Vice-Chairman of the Municipality for passing the order impugned to the writ application.

8. It is also submitted by Mrs. Maity, that the writ application was liable to be dismissed in view of suppression of the material fact by the writ petitioner/respondent No. 1 in the above writ application. According to Mrs. Maity, two reports dated December 20, 2012 and February 22, 2013 were submitted by the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Bishnupur, Bankura and the Municipal Authority respectively to the Sub-Divisional Executive