The court emphasized the need for a permanent mechanism, such as the PLPC, to address encroachments on public land and to provide a pan-Rajasthan solution to the issue.

JUDGMENT

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

"i) by an appropriate writ, order or direction the respondents, encroachment made over the lands in question bearing Khasra No. 596 of Village Mohan Nagar, Tehsil Phalodi, District Jodhpur de hors the clear provisions of law and the aforesaid principles of law drawn by the Hon'ble Apex Court may kindly be declared illegal, arbitrary, unjustified and unconstitutional being violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

ii) By an appropriate writ, order, or direction, the impugned inaction on the part of the respondents in not removing the alleged encroachment so made over the land bearing Khasra No. 596 of Village Mohan Nagar, Tehsil Phalodi, District Jodhpur deserves to be declared illegal, unjust and contrary to the provisions of law and is violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

iii) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondent State of Rajasthan and the District Collector, Jodhpur to remove the alleged encroachments made over the land/dispossess the oran, gochar land bearing Khasra No. 596 of Village Mohan Nagar, Tehsil Phalodi, District Jodhpur and by dispossessing them restore the original position of the said land.

iv) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may kindly be restrained from issuing any pattas with regard to the land falling in Khasra No. 596 of Village Mohan Nagar, Tehsil Phalodi, District Jodhpur."

2. Having heard and considered the submissions advanced by counsel representing the petitioner and, having gone through the material available on record, we are of the firm view that the petitioner has available to him a suitable remedy for ventilating his 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 r