The establishment of a Public Land Protection Cell (PLPC) in every district to address encroachments on public land and take appropriate steps for removal of encroachments and penal action against trespassers.

JUDGMENT

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

"(i) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondent authorities may kindly be directed to remove the encroachments made over the land of Johad Paitan situated in Chak 14 SLD-A, 14 SLD, 15 SLD, 16 SLD, 16 SLD-A, total admeasuring 30.429 hectare of village Bhairupura Silwani, Tehsil-Suratgargh District Sri. Ganganagar and make the land in question free from all encroachments and restore previous position of Johad paitan as it existed prior to the encroachments.

(ii) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the Respondents may also kindly be directed to ensure that no encroachments on the land of Johad Paitan is made in future."

2. Having heard and considered the submissions advanced at Bar 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, 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 put in place, this Court would not be inclined to directly entertain such public interest litigation or would do so only in the event of inaction on the part of the concerned PLPC. The PLPC aforementioned shall also keep in view the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh & Others v. State of Punjab & Others, (2011) 11 SCC 396 wherein all the State Governments of the country were directed that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorised occupants of the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat land and the same mus