1992 Supreme(Raj) 394
Rajasthan High Court
Honble R.S. Verma & RajendRa Saxena, JJ.
Narain - Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan - Respondents
D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1328 of 1989, and three more
Decided On : November 18, 1992
Subject
Administrative Law - Administrative Procedure
Act Referred
Headnote
D.S. Shishodia, Senior Advocate along with H.L. Kola, Advocate, for Petitioner Shanker Mal Singhvi and Hemant Choudhary, P.P., for Respondents No. 1 & 2 B.R. Mehta, for Respondent No. 3
2. Under Rule 17 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of Land for Agricultural Purposes) Rules, 1970 (for short the Rules of 1970) read with provisions of Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings Rules, 1973 (for short the Rules of 1973) the Allotting Authority (S.D.O. Begun) proceeded to make allotment of excess ceiling land in favour of the petitioner. A meeting was fixed for this purpose on 3.6,1981, at which besides the S DO. two memoers of the Advisory Committee namely Tebsildar, Begun and Sarpanch, Avalheda were also present. Since three members of the Advisory Committee were not present and the quorum was incomplete, the meeting was adjourned to 3 P.M. the same day. At the adjourned meeting, again the Allotting Authority and two members of the Advisory Committee were present. The Allotting Authority considered that the quorum was complete and hence by Annexure-1 he proceeded to make the allotment in question. This allotment was challenged by respondent No. 3 Devi Lal by filing an application before Collector, Chittorgarh. This application was accepted by the Collector, Chittorgarh vide order Annexure-2 dated 13 9.1983. One of the grounds which prevailed with the Collector was that the quorum of the Advisory Committee was not complete in as much as at the adjourned meeting only two members of the Advisory Committee were present. Some other objections were also taken before him. But he made a vague and generalised observation that the procedure and the Rules with regard to allotment had not been complied with. He however did not record any specific finding about the alleged contravention of such procedure or Rules. Aggrieved by the said order the petitioner preferred an appeal before the Revenue Appellate Authority, Udaipur Camp Chittorgarh, which was dismissed. The learned Appellate Authority agreed with the Collector that the quorum was not complete. The petitioner took the matter to the Board of Revenue, but the learned Member of the Board also concurred with the Collector and the Revenue Appellate Authority that the quorum was not complete. He further said that the members of the Advisory Committee did not have any notice of the adjourned meeting held on the same day. He, therefore, affirmed the orders passed by the lower courts.
3. In this writ petition, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the Collector, Revenue Appellate Authority and the Revenue Board had completely gone wrong in understanding the provisions regarding quorum of the meeting. He submits that once the meeting of the Advisory Committee had been adjourned, neither fresh notice was necessary to the members present nor any notice was necessary to the members of the Advisory Committee, who had not attended the meeting. He, therefore, submits that the impugned orders of learned Collector, learned Revenue Appellate Authority and the learned Member, Board of Revenue deserve to be quashed.
4. The writ petition has been opposed on behalf of respondents and it is submitted that a fresh notice of the adjourned meeting ought to have been given to all the members of the Advisory Committee and since no such notice had been given, the meeting could not have taken place and the impugned allotments so made were illegal. It is also reiterated that since the Collector had found that there was violation of the procedure and Rules relating to allotments, therefore, his order did not warrant any interference.
5. The learned counsel for the petitioner contends that so far as the finding recorded by the Collector regarding violation of procedure and Rules of allotme