The judgment emphasizes that claims involving disputed questions of fact cannot be entertained in extraordinary jurisdiction, and attempts to secure benefits under the guise of sympathy are not permissible.

JUDGMENT :

ASHUTOSH SHASTRI, J.

1. By way of this appeal under clause 15 of the Letters Patent Appeal, appellants – original petitioners have challenged the legality and validity of the order dated 24.02.2022 passed by the learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No. 14240 of 2021.

2. Appellants who are the original writ applicants have come forward in Special Civil Application with a cause that petitioner no. 1 – Trust represented by one of the trustees, is a Trust consisting of members of petitioner Samaj basically engaged in making idols of Hindu God like Ganesha, Durga, Dasha Mata, Kali Mata etc., and it is an old age traditional occupation of them since their forefather. It is contended that members of the petitioner – Trust started facing difficulties from the respondent Surat Municipal Corporation (for short “SMC”) on account of development work which has been carried out in the City of Surat and on account of such hardship being faced by the members, Bavri Samaj community approached the Human Rights Commission initially to redress their grievance basically for allotment of houses to Bavri samaj people who are living on footpath, open canal and khadi area and also at places under fly over bridges. It is the case of petitioners that several representation is stated to have been made and in response to that, most of the zone of Corporation completed survey no. 1 and sent a copy to the Head Office and thereby the Corporation allotted 217 houses after completing necessary procedure like taking deposit and fixing the amount of EMI per month on the basis of allotment in Vadod Village, Pandesara, Surat.

2.1. It is the case of petitioners that petitioner – Trust made survey and found that total number of families living in Surat are approximately 900 in numbers. Somewhere in the year 2015, Bavri community people had approached Human Rights Commission for their housing issues since Corporation removed them from footpath shelters whenever any VIPs were passing through and on account of such issues, according to petitioners, the Human Rights Commission directed the authority to conduct the survey in the City of Surat about Bavri community members of Surat City and their population and in turn provide and allot houses to community members from the Corporation sources like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna etc., without any draw system.

2.2. It is the case of petitioners that pursuant to that one spot survey in the night was conducted wherein, it was found that 700 family members are living in Surat of Bavri samaj and in turn the respondent Corporation passed a Resolution ordering zonal officers to meet the Bavri community people and call upon them to fill the form for allocation of SMC houses. The people from the Katargam zone accordingly vacated their places and settled in Udhna zone where there are more than 400 families living in said zone. Despite the said allocation of SMC houses, officers of the Corporation of Udhna zone are not obeying the Resolution/Order of respondent Corporation and are not carrying out any procedure to allot the houses. Later on, as a part of Step-2 procedure on the basis of information and verification, tokens were issued to Bavri community people and up to this process i.e. of Step-2, 50% of most of the zones, except Udhna zone, allocation of houses was done and on account of such procedure, deposit of Rs.3,500/- is being taken and per month installment was determined at Rs.400/- by way of EMI and according to petitioners some other different zone in which also large number of members are still waiting for such process of allocation of residence are yet to be allotted houses.

2.3. It is the case of petitioners that respondent - Corporation opened the doors of the house and gave each family lock & key etc., and called upon them to reside in said houses and also provided even electricity in the old house and sent electricity bills as well as tax bills every year which tax bills/vera