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1999 Supreme(Guj) 541

Gujarat High Court
Judgename :D.C.Srivastava
NATWARBHAI J.PATEL - Appellant
Versus
STATE - Respondent
S.C.A. 5239 of 1996
Decided On : 10/08/1999

Advocates Appeared: HARSHA N.DEVANI, M.I.HAVA, Thakkar Associates

Headnote:

Civil Law – Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act – Section 6 (1), 8 (3), 21, 33 and 34 – URBAN Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999 – Section 1 (3) – Status-quo – Applicability of Repeal Act – Prayed the quashing the order dated 19. 10. 1989 passed by the Competent Authority – Seeking amendment in the writ petition for issuing writ of mandamus quashing notification u/s. 10 (3) of Act published and direction to the respondents to restore possession of tpetitioners land – Petitioner contended that other reliefs have also been sought in the writ petition which have to be considered – My attention has been drawn to relief 11 (AA) introduced after the writ petition was amended – Prayer issuing a order for quashing notification u/s. 10 (3) of Principal Act published and for a writ of mandamus directing respondents to restore symbolic possession of the disputed land – Again, for reasons stated above, if the writ petition abates this question cannot be examined and answered – Whether proposals made by the erstwhile owner for undertaking scheme as envisaged under S. 21 or hardships as envisaged under S. 20 for exemption would merit consideration – Held, It is evident that hearing was given to the petitioner before rejecting the application under Section 21 – On the second question the verdict of the Full Bench is that the application under Sec. 20 (1) of the Principal Act should be decided expeditiously within the prescribed time, say within six months – At Page : 607 the Full Bench observed that it is indeed true, as pointed out earlier, that it should be the endeavour of the State Government to dispose of application under Section 20 (1) at an early date but we are not inclined to the view that merely because application for exemption is pending, entire process beyond the Section 6 stage should grind to a halt till such application is decided – In this case there was no discussion regarding disposal of scheme under Section 21 of Principal Act – Notification u/s. 10 (3) vesting the excess land in government is not prohibited merely because of pendency of applications under Sections 20 and 21 of the principal Act – Petition abates. (Paras 18, 20,21 and 22)

D. C. SRIVASTAVA, J.

( 1 ) THE prayer of the petitioners in this writ petition is for quashing the order dated 19. 10. 1989 passed by the Competent Authority and order dated 20. 10. 1995 passed by the State Government by issuing a writ of certiorary. Further prayer was added by seeking amendment in the writ petition for issuing writ of mandamus quashing notification u/s. 10 (3) of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Reglation) Act published on 26. 4. 1990 and direction to the respondents to restore possession of the petitioners land bearing Srvey No. 43/1 area 5244 sq. mtrs.

( 2 ) THE facts giving rise to this petition are as under : petitioner Natvarbhai Jivanlal Patel filled form No. 1 under Section 6 (1) of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act declaring the properties held by him. The Competent Authority sent draft statement with notice under Section 8 (3) of the Act on 19. 10. 1983. After considering objections of the land holder and after giving full opportunity of hearing to him the competent Authority passed an order on 16. 1. 1987 whereby it was held that in view of fact that the land holder had been granted agricultural exemption by the Sate Government under Section 20 of the Act the same was excluded from his holding and the application was kept pending as agricultural exempted land. Revision was filed against this order by the State Government under Sec. 34 of the Act which was allowed and the order of the competent Authority was set aside on 22. 2. 1989 and the matter was remanded to the competent Authority. Information was received by the competent Authority from the State Government that the agricultural exemption granted to the petitioner regarding Survey No. 43/1 was cancelled. Accordingly form under Sec. 6 (1) was processed and on 19. 10. 1989 the competent Authority held that the petitioner was entitled to four units of 1500 sq. mtrs. each, namely, total 6000 sq. mtrs. and 5244. 97 sq. mtrs. of land was declared as surplus. Final statement under Sec. 9 of the Act was issued on 21. 10. 1989. Notification under Section 10 (1) of the Act was published in the Gazette on 21. 12. 1989. Notification under Section 10 (1) of the Act was published in the Gazette on 26. 4. 1990. Notice under Section 10 (5) of the Act was served on the petitioner on 31. 5. 1990. Revision was preferred against the order of the competent Authority passed on 19. 10. 1989 which was rejected by order dated 20. 10. 1995 and proceedings under Sec. 34 were closed. Thereafter the Deputy Collector was authorised to take possession of excess vacant land. Possession of surplus land was taken over on 5. 12. 1995. Petitioner submitted scheme under Sec. 21 of the Act with respect to Survey No. 43/1. Competent Authority rejected the same on 5. 9. 1995. Against this order the petitioner preferred Appeal before the Urban Land Tribunal under Section 33 of the Act. The Tribunal by its order dated 30. 9. 1996 set aside the order of the competent Authority which was directed to restore the petitioners scheme under Section 21 to the file for consideration on merits. The matter is still pending and no final decision has been taken on the application under Section 21 because new schedule of rates were not received from the specified Officer and the Superintending Engineer. Accordingly, this writ petition has been filed in which on 19. 7. 1996 this Court directed the parties to maintain status-quo. However, possession was already taken over by the State Government on 5. 10. 1995 i. e. before the interim order was passed by this Court.

( 3 ) THE writ petition was filed on 18. 7. 1996. During pendency of this writ petition Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act of 1976 was repealed by Act No. 15 of 1999. The effect of the repealing Act and the provisions of repeal, saving and abatement contained in this Act have to be taken into consideration as subsequent events and it has to be seen what would be the fate of this writ petition and the impugned order.

( 4 ) URBAN L























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