JUDGMENT

Mohammad Rafiq, J. - Application No. 97071/2018 has been filed for taking on record legal heirs of deceased-Respondent No. 9, Ram Phool Meena. For the reasons mentioned in the application, the application is allowed. Legal heirs of deceased-Respondent No. 9 are taken on record. Amended Cause Title annexed with the application be taken on record.

Mr. Mohar Pal Meena, learned counsel, who appears on behalf of Respondent No. 17 and 20, submits that he will take instructions of legal heirs of Respondent No. 9 and file Vakalatnama on their behalf.

Mr. Anil Mehta, learned Additional Advocate General submits that private respondents have already been evicted from the pasture land where they were sitting as trespassers and in fact, they have been punished under Section 91 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 vide order dated 07.11.2017 passed by the Tehsildar concerned with sentence of 90 days and penalty equal to 50 times of the land revenue which comes to Rs. 23/-.

Learned counsel for the petitioners on the other hand submitted that although the aforesaid order may have been passed by the Tehsildar concerned in proceedings under Section 91 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 but in fact, neither the private respondents have been put behind the bars pursuant to the aforesaid order of the Tehsildar, nor their possession over the pasture land has actually been removed.

The District Collector, Dausa shall file his affidavit with specific assertion as to whether encroachments of private respondents have been removed and the pasture land has been freed from the encroachments and whether the private respondents, who failed to remove the encroachments despite repeated notices, have been made to serve the sentence in terms of order dated 07.11.2017 by actual incarceration.

This Court is inundated with large number of writ petitions, styled as public interest litigation, from almost all the Districts of the State, with allegations of encroachment over the pasture land/ land of 'johad', 'talab'/ river/river bed/public way/ Shamshan/Kabristan etc. In all such petitions, common allegation is that despite repeated complaints/representations to the concerned revenue officers, no steps are taken by them to remove the encroachment. This results in number of writ petitions being filed by the complainants/representationists before this Court. This Court has been passing orders in such matters requiring the respective District Collectors to examine the factual content of the allegations and take steps to remove the encroachments so as to secure such land.

2. In order therefore to provide a pan-Rajasthan solution to this ever persisting problem, we deem it appropriate to direct the Chief Secretary of the State to devise a permanent mechanism, which should be operational in every District of the State where the concerned District Collector should be required to periodically notify for the information of the general public to lodge the complaints/representations with regard to such encroachments with a specially designated Public Land Protection Cell (for short 'PLPC') for rural areas. The PLPC should be headed by District Collector and function under his direction and supervision. The PLPC shall get such complaints/representations enquired into by deputing concerned Sub Divisional Officer/Tehsildar/Naib Tehsildar so as to verify whether or not such encroachments have actually taken place on such land. If the allegations are found to be substantiated, appropriate steps in accordance with law be immediately taken for removal of the encroachments and appropriate penal action be also taken against the trespassers. The complaints/representations received in the PLPC should be decided by passing speaking order, informing the respective complainant/representationist about the action taken. This would obviate the necessity of such complainants/ representationists approaching this Court directly by way of public interest litigation. If this practice is p