JUDGMENT :

RAJESH SHANKAR, J.

1. The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the order dated 24.07.2018 (signed on 26.07.2018) (Annexure-3 to the writ petition) passed by the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka in R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16 whereby the order dated 06.09.2014 passed by the Settlement Officer, Santhal Pargana, Dumka in Settlement Miscellaneous Appeal No. 57/2010 has been confirmed and the second appeal preferred by the petitioner against the said order has been dismissed.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner while challenging the order dated 26.07.2018 passed by the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka, submits that the same has been passed without providing due opportunity of hearing to the petitioner that too, without assigning any reason.

3. Since the argument of learned counsel for the petitioner is confined to the aforesaid aspect, the factual claim made by the petitioner with regard to the land in question is not required to be mentioned in detail.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the respondent No. 1 filed M.P. Case No. 580/2006 in the Court of the Assistant Settlement Officer, Santhal Pargana, Dumka requesting inter-alia for deleting the name of the petitioner from the new survey settlement document, to substitute his name in that place and to issue the settlement papers in his favour. The petitioner was not made party-respondent in the said case and hence he intervened in the same. The Assistant Settlement Officer, Dumka vide order dated 27.08.2010, finally dismissed M.P. Case No. 580/2006 observing inter-alia that the issue raised by the respondent No. 1 was relating to title of the said land which could not be entertained by the said authority. The respondent No. 1, being aggrieved with the order dated 27.08.2010, preferred Settlement Misc. Appeal No. 57/2010 before the Settlement Officer, Dumka which, however, was allowed vide order dated 06.09.2014. The petitioner thereafter challenged the order dated 06.09.2014 in the Court of the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka by filing R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16. It is further submitted that R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16 was taken up by the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka on 08.04.2015 and the same was ordered to be listed for consideration on the point of admission on 02.07.2015. Though the petitioner was represented on each and every date fixed in R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16, yet he was shown absent on 24.07.2018 as would be evident from the relevant part of the order sheet of the said case annexed as Annexure-3 to the present writ petition. The order sheet would further suggest that on the said date, the order was separately dictated by the learned Commissioner. Since the petitioner was totally unaware of passing of any such order, he applied for certified copy of the orders passed in R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16 and thereafter came to know that the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka had passed a separate order on 26.07.2018 dismissing the second appeal of the petitioner, a copy of which has been annexed at page 33 as part of Annexure-3 to the writ petition. It is also submitted that the learned Commissioner while passing the impugned order dated 26.07.2018, has dismissed the said appeal merely observing that the order of the Settlement Officer, Dumka is judicious requiring no interference. It is thus submitted that the petitioner has not only been deprived of due opportunity of hearing to present his case, but the impugned order dated 26.07.2018 passed by the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka is also bereft of any reason whatsoever.

5. Mr. A. K. Choudhary, learned counsel for the respondent No. 1, submits that R.M.A. No. 05/2015-16 filed by the petitioner has rightly been dismissed by the Commissioner, Santhal Pargana Division, Dumka vide the impugned order dated 26.07.2018 as the order passed by the Settlement Officer, Dumka was completely justified and legal.

6. Heard learned counsel for the part