Unauthorized occupation of Village Grazing Reserve (V.G.R.) land is prohibited under Rule 95 of the Settlement Rules, and possession or settlement of V.G.R. land is prohibited unless dereserved first under Rule 95A.

B.P. Katakey, J.

1. The petitioner, by the present writ petition, has prayed for directing the respondents not to evict the members of the petitioner's committee from the land under their occupation and also to consider the application filed by them for grant of settlement of the land they are possessing.

2. I have heard Mr. M. Singh, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam for the respondent Nos. 1 to 3 and Mrs. Milli Hazarika, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent No. 4, Assam Industrial Development Corporation Limited.

3. Mr. Singh, learned Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the members of the petitioner's committee, 18 in number, named in annexure 2 to the writ petition, are possessing the land measuring about 3 Bs each for last more than 70 years and as such, they acquire bona fide right of claim over the land under their possession due to the long and uninterrupted possession and, therefore, the land which was initially a Village Grazing Reserve (V.G.R.) and subsequently, de-reserved and became government khas land ought to have been settled in their favour pursuant to the applications filed by them for settlement as they are landless persons fulfilling the conditions required for getting settlement under the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation. The further submission of Mr. Singh is that they cannot be evicted under Rule 18 of the Settlement Rules as they acquired bona fide right of claim due to long possession and in any case, without following the procedure laid down under the said Rules. It has further been contended by the learned Counsel for the petitioner that the Government of Assam vide notification dated 20.1.1968 has taken a policy decision regarding the settlement of land and also removal of encroachment from the V.G.R. and other Government khas land, according to which the Government before removal of encroachment has to consult the Land Settlement Advisory Committee and in the instant case, the authority without making any consultation with the Land Settlement Advisory Committee has sought to evict the members of the petitioner's committee and that too, without issuing any notice as required under Rule 18 of the Settlement Rules framed under the Assam Land Revenue Regulation.

4. Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam relying on the affidavit-in-opposition filed on behalf of the respondent No. 2 has submitted that an area of land measuring 166 Bighas-3 Kathas in the V.G.R. at Kundargaon in Titabor Town, part of which is being encroached upon by the members of the petitioner's committee, processed to dereserve under the provisions of the Assam Land Revenue Regulation and keeping in view the necessity of industrialization in Assam and having found the said plot of land suitable for the purpose and after convening a meeting with all the leading people of the locality and Gaon Panchayat members and the President, an area of land measuring 120 bighas out of the said land has been settled in favour of the Assam Industrial Development Corporation for setting up of an Industrial Infrastructure Development Centre with the Government of India assistance. According to the learned Addl. Advocate General, the eviction of the unauthorized occupants of the said land was undertaken after issuing notice as required under Rule 18 of the Settlement Rules. But subsequently, by the strength of the interim Order passed by this Court in the present writ petition, all the evicted persons including the members of the petitioner's committee re-occupied the land and in fact, growing tea bushes over the said land. According to the learned Additional Advocate General, the Government authority before carrying out the eviction operation has carefully verified the claim of each of the encroachers for settlement of the land and upon verification, it was found that 12 numbers of families out of 40 encroachers including some members of