ORAL ORDER

(PER : HONOURABLE DR. JUSTICE VINEET KOTHARI)

The petitioner, Jayvirsinh Jadeja, an Ex-Sarpanch, has filed this Public Interest Litigation seeking to assail allotment of lands by District Collector, Kutch in favour of Respondent No.3- Saw Pipe Ltd. on the grounds that the price realized by the State for the said allotment was less than the market price and the District Collector has surreptitiously made these allotment causing loss of revenue to the State. These allotments were made in the year 2004. The details of these allotment are given in the petition also. The counter reply has been filed by the said Company inter-alia alleging the lack of bona-fides on the part of the petitioner in the present PIL petition. It is stated in the affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent-Company that the said person directly or indirectly has been engaging the respondent-Company in the litigation in this Court in the reference to some earlier petition filed by him or his associates, namely, Writ Petition (PIL) No.23 of 2013, Special Civil Application No.355 of 2013 and Special Civil Application No.8852 of 2011 has been made in para-5.6 of the reply affidavit, also reference to a Civil Suit No.3 of 2011 has been made in the said reply.

The learned senior counsel for the Respondent-Company, Mr.D.C.Dave, has submitted before us that the present petition is to wreck a vendetta of the said Respondent Company in whose favour the allotment for the development of industry in the Kutch Industrial Area was made by the District Collector at the market rate then prevailing and the initial rate of 6 per sq. mtr. were raised to Rs.8 per sq.mtr. which was paid and upon invitation of the State Government only, they had come here and made investment in the land and thereafter setting up the factory there. He submitted that the present PIL petition is not bona-fide and therefore, deserves to be dismissed.

Per contra, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr.Narendra Jain, submitted and drawing attention of the Court to the previous order passed by the coordinate Bench of this Court dated 04.05.2016 in which coordinate Bench has noted all the details and has issued certain directions calling upon the Respondent-State to give answers to the same. Mr.Jain, learned counsel submitted that the allegations raised against the petitioner about lack of bona-fides are incorrect and even criminal complaints were filed against the concerned Government authorities at the relevant point of time for causing loss to the State in this regard.

Having heard learned counsel for the parties, we are satisfied that not only disputed questions of facts are involved in this PIL petition but also it seems that the PIL is not a bona-fide one and is filed more to settle personal scores between the petitioner with the respondent-Company. The allotments of land made in due course of time in accordance with Rules by learned District Collector cannot be called in question after 10 years of its allotment on the grounds stated in the PIL petition. We are satisfied that the present PIL does not deserve any further consideration by this Court. The petition is accordingly dismissed. No costs.

(DR. VINEET KOTHARI,J)

(UMESH A. TRIVEDI, J)

ASHISH M. GADHIYA