Important Point—No person can acquire right on government lands by adverse possession.

Sandeep Mehta, J.

1. By way of this writ petition, the petitioners Mansur and 4 others have approached this Court seeking to challenge the proposed auction of certain pieces of land sought to be undertaken by the respondent Municipal Council Dungarpur vide auction notices Ex. 5 and 6.

2. Specific challenge is made by the petitioners to auction of items No. 4 and 7 mentioned in the notices which are commercial plots ad-measuring 15 x 50 ft. each.

3. Succinctly stated the facts relevant and essential for the disposal of the writ petition are noted hereinbelow.

4. The petitioners claim to be Adiwasis belonging to Scheduled Tribe category. They stake claim on the disputed land under auction by means of long and settled possession. A huge chunk of land admeasuring about 165 Bighas situated in vicinity of Dungarpur City was allocated to the Municipal Council, Dungarpur by the State Government by way of order dated 29.5.1989 passed by the District Collector. The total allocated land measured 164 Bighas and 7 Biswas of which 33 Bighas and 9 Biswas was taken from Khasra No. 722, which is the bone of contention between the parties to the litigation. The possession of the entire allocated land was handed over to the Municipal Council on 29.9.1989 upon deposition of capitalised cost of the land. The petitioners herein filed a suit in the court of the SDO, Dungarpur on 24.10.2002 alleging that even before coming into force of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act on 15.10.1955 they were in settled possession of 10 Bighas of the land of Khasra No. 722 since the last 60 years. They sought declaration as khatedars of the said 10 Bighas of land from Khasra No. 722. An application for interim relief under Section 212 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act was also filed by the petitioners impleading the State Government, the Collector, the Public Works Department and the Municipal Council, Dungarpur as party respondents. Reply was filed on behalf of the Municipal Council Dungarpur wherein, it was specifically averred that the disputed land had long back been allocated by the State Government to the Municipal Council which was in possession thereof from 20.9.1989 and that 6 Bighas from the disputed land had been set apart for the Police Department. It was also asserted that the so-called agricultural land had long back been converted to Abadi land. The SDO Dungarpur proceeded to dismiss the application for interim relief filed by the petitioners herein by a detailed order dated 11.11.2002. An appeal was preferred against the order of the SDO Dungarpur before the Revenue Appellate Authority, Udaipur which was dismissed on 28.2.2004 for non-prosecution. The Municipal Council initiated an auction for leasing out 8 plots from the allocated land and a publication was made for that purpose on 23.2.2006. Thereupon, another round of litigation ensued at the behest of the petitioners, who filed a civil suit for permanent injunction in the court of the learned Civil Judge (Sr.Div.) Dungarpur on 7.3.2006. The auction was fixed on 7.3.2006. The Civil Judge refused to grant any interim order in favour of the petitioners and the application preferred by them under Order 39 Rule1 and 2 CPC was dismissed on 18.12.2010. The said order was challenged by way of an appeal before the District Judge, Dungarpur which too came to be rejected on 19.5.2012. The District Judge, whilst rejecting the appeal observed that injunction could not be granted to encroachers against lawful owner of the land. In the meantime, the petitioners moved an application to the Minister for Tribal Development seeking to stall the auction proceedings dated 7.7.2009. The Minister forwarded the matter to the Local Self Body Department, Government of Rajasthan, which by order (Annex.3) dated 3.7.2009 stayed the auction. The Municipal Council upon receiving this intimation postponed the auction proceedings by issuing another advertisement in the newspaper. Thereafter, the Municipal Council kept on representing t