1. There is no dispute and debate over the ownership of the land in favour of the petitioners covered by respective Patta and Dag Nos. at village Hengrabari under Beltola Mouza, Guwahati. In fact, on separate applications made by the petitioners to the Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (M) for settlement of land, the matter was processed and a hierarchy of Revenue Officials certified the proposed land for settlement as being plain and vacant land and not falling within the description of water-bodies. Eventually, three orders of settlement came to be issued by the Revenue (Settlement) Department indicating settlement of land measuring 1 katha 10 lechas each covered by Dag No. 602/989 (Pt) of Village-Hengrabari under Beltola Mouza. The first order of settlement dated 26.04.2006 was issued jointly in favour of the petitioner Nos. 3 and 4, the second order of like date i.e. 26.04.2006 in favour of the petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 and the third order of settlement dated 25.04.2006 in favour of the petitioner Nos. 5 and 6. In terms of the said orders of settlement, the Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (M) was asked to handover possession of the land to the person concerned with further intimation that the land records be corrected and patta be issued after realisation of the premium in full. In consequence thereof, necessary premium were paid by the petitioners whereupon, respective pattas were issued in due course. Whereas the petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 were allotted Patta No. 218, the petitioner Nos. 3 and 4 were issued Patta No. 279 and petitioner Nos. 5 and 6 were issued 285, all covered by Dag No. 602/989 (old).

2. The petitioners claim to be residing over their respective patta lands by constructing residential structures. On record, permission for construction of building issued by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is only available in respect of petitioner Nos. 1 and 2. However, it is the case of the rest of the petitioners that they have constructed residential houses and are residing over their respective patta lands at village Hengrabari under Beltola Mouza.

3. The cause of action for instituting the present proceedings, in a joint capacity, arises upon the enactment of the Guwahati Water-bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act, 2008 which was brought into force w.e.f. 07.08.2008. In Section 3 of the said Act it has been categorically laid down that the areas of land specified in Schedules I, II, III and IV of the Act shall be water-bodies and by virtue of Section 4 thereof it is prescribed that the area of land specified in the aforesaid schedules are to be used as water-bodies and no person after coming into force of the Act shall:-

(i) undertake any activities including the filling up of water-bodies which may cause damage or reduce the size of the water-bodies;

(ii) construct or erect any structure in the water-bodies;

(iii) dump or throw solid waste or garbage in the water-bodies;

(iv) extend or reinforce of any building standing upon the water-bodies;

(v) carry out any kind of business except fish curing, aqua culture, conservation measure and flood control measures, that too with the specific previous permission of the Competent Authority.

The penalty for violation of any of the provisions under Section 4 is prescribed under Section 6 of the said Act.

4. At Schedule-III appended to the Act, the Dag No. 602 under revenue village Hengrabari, amongst others, have been declared as water-bodies within the definition of Section 2(e) of the Act. The petitioners being impacted by the legislative enactment declaring their patta land as water-bodies with prohibition from undertaking activities over their patta land, prays for declaring Section 3 read with Schedule-III of the Act as unreasonable to the extent of declaring Dag No. 602 as water-bodies.

5. Mr. P.K. Tiwari, learned senior counsel representing the petitioners makes forceful submission that the applicability of Section 3 and Schedule-III of the Act can