The main legal point established in the judgment is the availability of a suitable remedy for ventilating grievances related to encroachments through the mechanism established by the Division Bench Judgment, which directed the Chief Secretary of the State to devise a permanent mechanism for addressing encroachment issues.

JUDGMENT

1. The petitioners have approached this Court by way of this writ petition (PIL) with the following prayers:-

"10/A, By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondent may kindly be directed to remove the encroachment made over the land of Araji No. 1252, which forming part as Gair Mumkin land of village Chhajvo Ka Kheda of Patwar Halka Keriya, Tehsil Mandal, District Bhilwara.

10/B, By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondent authorities may kindly be directed to remove the encroachment made over the government land as well as land falls under the category of section 16 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act in whole of area of village Chhajvo Ka Kheda of Patwar Halka Keriya, Tehsil Mandal, District Bhilwara.

10/C, By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondent authorities may kindly be punished for their inaction on the part of them wherein, despite having been knowledge of encroachment has already been made over the government land and land of gair mumkin situated at village Chhajvo Ka Kheda of Patwar Halka Keriya, Tehsil Mandal, District Bhilwara and despite having been initiating eviction proceedings against the encroachers, encroachment has not been removed.

10/D, By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may kindly be directed to remove the kaccha pakka construction raised over the government land as well as land specified for specific purposes in whole of area of village Chhajvo Ka Kheda of Patwar Halka Keriya, Tehsil Mandal, District Bhilwara."

2. Having heard and considered the submissions advanced by counsel representing the petitioners and, having gone through the material available on record, we are of the firm view that the petitioners have available to them a suitable remedy for ventilating their grievances by virtue of the Division Bench Judgment of this Court in the case of Jagdish Prasad Meena & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. passed in D.B. Civil Writ Petition (PIL) No. 10819/2018 decided on 30.01.2019 wherein this Court directed as below:-

"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.

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, informi