The Additional Collector has jurisdiction to decide a revision petition under Section 97 of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, as the power of revision has been delegated to the Collector and the term "Collector" includes Additional Collector.

ORDER :

Arun Bhansali, J.

1. This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner aggrieved against the order dated 8/7/2019 (Annex. 13), whereby, the preliminary objection pertaining to jurisdiction filed by the petitioner has been rejected and order dated 26/11/2019 (Annex. 16), whereby, the revision petition filed by the respondent No. 3 has been allowed and the Patta dated 20/9/2007 issued in favour of petitioner has been quashed.

2. The petitioner was issued a Patta dated 20/9/2007 by Gram Panchayat, Bawarli under Rule 157 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996 ('the Rules, 1996'). The Patta pertained to land ad measuring 537.41 sq.yds. and was issued for Rs. 200/-. The Patta in question was challenged by respondent no. 3 by filing revision petition under Section 97 of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 ('the Act, 1994') before the Additional Collector, Jodhpur inter alia claiming that the land did not belong to Gram Panchayat and in fact two GLRs of Public Health & Engineering Department (PHED) are constructed on the land by which the villagers are being supplied drinking water. The issuance of Patta was also challenged on account of violation of provisions of Rule 157 of the Rules on account of there being no residential house and that the land much more than what was provided under the Rules was given away by way of Patta for a sum of Rs. 200/- only.

3. The revision petition was opposed by the petitioner. An objection was raised that the Addl. Collector does not have the jurisdiction to decide the revision petition. The objection was rejected by the Addl. Collector by order dated 8/7/2019 inter alia relying on the notification dated 13/12/2004 issued by the State Government delegating the powers in this regard.

4. Feeling aggrieved, the petitioner filed S.B.C. Writ Petition No. 11260/2019, which was withdrawn with liberty to challenge the issue of jurisdiction in case final order is passed against the petitioner.

5. The Addl. Collector by his impugned order came to the conclusion that only a room made of stone slabs ad measuring 10'x8' was existing at the site and on rest of the land there was no construction. The vacant land could not be allotted under Rule 157 of the Rules. Further the authority also came to the conclusion that in the entire record i.e. application, notice, inspection note and statements there was no reference to the measurement of the land except for a map on which the measurement of boundaries was indicated but total area measurement was also missing. The objection raised by the petitioner regarding non-maintainability of revision petition before the Addl. Collector was also rejected and consequently the revision petition was allowed and the Patta was set aside.

6. Learned counsel for the petitioner vehemently submitted that the Additional Collector had no jurisdiction inasmuch as once the power was delegated to Collector, the same could only be exercised by the Collector and the Addl. Collector could not exercise the said powers, therefore, the order impugned deserves to be quashed and set aside.

7. Submissions have also been made that Patta granted to the petitioner was registered and the same could not be set aside while exercising powers under Section 97 of the Act and as such the exercise of jurisdiction was not justified and, therefore, the order impugned deserves to be set aside.

8. Plea was also raised that revision petition was not maintainable.

9. Reliance was placed on Manohar Lal vs. District Collector, Barmer : 2015 (2) RRT 967 and Panna Lal & Anr. vs. Smt. Sushila Devi & Ors : 2018-19 (Supp.) RRT 125.

10. I have considered the submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioner and have perused the material available on record.

11. A bare perusal of the record indicates that the Patta of land ad measuring 537.41 Sq. Yds. has been issued on which only a room ad measuring 10'x8' and two GLRs constructed by PHED are existing. The Addl. Collector has recorded a finding of fact that in the file perta