Hon'ble AMBWANI, CJ.—

Writ Petition No.2202/2012

1. This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners-Braham Singh Parihar and Chiman Singh Parihar with the following prayers:-

“I. by an appropriate writ, order or direction the impugned order dated 31.1.2012 (Annex.9) passed by the Secretary, Jodhpur Development Authority, Jodhpur and Resolution No.14 dated 21.3.2011 published on 15.4.2011 (Annex.10) are quashed and set aside.

I/A. Further by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the impugned order dated 16.6.2011 (Annex.11) passed by the Deputy Secretary, Group-3, Nagariya Vikas Department, Government of Rajasthan may kindly be quashed and set aside.

II. Further by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may be directed to maintain the size of road i.e. 100 ft.

III. Any other appropriate order or direction, which this Hon'ble Court considers just and proper in the facts and circumstances of this case, may kindly be passed in favour of the petitioners.

IV. Costs of the amended writ petition may kindly be awarded to the petitioners.”

2. It is alleged that the petitioners had khatedari land in Khasra No.58/2, Village Bhadwasiya, Tehsil and District Jodhpur. They applied for change of land use under Section 90B of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 from agriculture to residential and surrendered their rights in 12 bighas of land of their khatedari for conversion. In the Master Plan of the City of Jodhpur from 1976 to 1996, the width of the Paota “C” Road, on which the plot was situate, was shown to be 125 ft. wide. In the Sector Plan, the width of the same road i.e. coming from Jaipur road to RTO office and thereafter, from RTO office to Nagaur road (Paota “C” Road), was shown to be 100 ft. The respondent-Jodhpur Development Authority (JDA) issued a public notice on 30.4.2010 in the daily newspapers showing the width of the road as 100 ft.

3. It is stated that the petitioners gave a notice through their counsel for removal of encroachments and also claiming the width of the road to be 125 ft., which was arbitrarily and illegally reduced to 100 ft. The petitioners also filed a Civil Suit No.134/2011 for permanent and mandatory injunction for removal of encroachments on the Paota 'C' Road, used as public road. Alongwith the suit, they also made an application under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 CPC. Notices have been issued on the application in the said Civil Suit.

4. It is stated that in the meeting dated 31.1.2012, the Jodhpur Development Authority (JDA) proposed to recommend to the State Government to reduce the width of the road from 100 ft. to 80 ft. As soon as the petitioners came to know about the proposal dated 31.1.2012 in the news published in the daily newspapers, they applied under the Right to Information Act, 2005 for obtaining the copies of the proceedings and agenda items and from which, they came to know that initially, the width of the road was shown to be 120-160 ft. and thereafter, it was reduced to 100 ft. In the meeting of JDA, by the impugned decision, the width of the road was proposed to be reduced from 100 ft. to 80 ft.

5. It is submitted that no change in the Master Plan is permitted except in accordance with the procedure prescribed under Section 25 for modification of Plans and 28 for review of Plan under the Jodhpur Development Authority Act, 2009. In both the cases, a public notice is required to be given & published and thereafter, after hearing the parties, the modification may be made with the permission of the State Government. It is submitted that in the present case, the permission of the State Government was not taken before reducing the width of the road from 100 ft. to 80 ft. and thus, the decision is incompetent and liable to be set aside.

6. In paragraph 4 of the reply of the JDA, the entire details of the width of “Paota-C Road” as it was initially proposed in the Master Plan in the year 1977 (i.e. 26.11.1977) of the Jodhpur City and thereafter, the changes and the acquisi