ORAL JUDGMENT

1. By way of present petition, the petitioner has challenged order dated 3010.2018 passed by the learned Special Secretary, Revenue Department, bearing No. MVV/JMN/SBR/10/2018 whereby the revision application referred by the petitioner came to be rejected and the order dated 4.4.2018 passed by the District Collector, Sabarkantha was confirmed.

2. The brief facts leading to the present petition are as follows:

2.1 The land in question being an old tenure land owned by two brothers namely Rameshbhai Parshottambhai Panchal and Maheshbhai Parshottambhai Panchal, admeasuring 14873 sq. mtrs situated at Block No.139, Moje: Mahiyal, Taluka: Talod, District: Sabarkantha. As per the agreement between the parties, the portion of the land admeasuring 7386 sq. mtrs out of the total land owned by both the brothers was agreed to be sell to the petitioner Trust whereby the transaction was entered into by registered sale-deed dated 10.6.2018 bearing Serial No. 1323 thereof. The petitioner had undertaken an exercise of fragmentation of land in question and got necessary permission issued vide order dated 20.3.2010 of the Deputy Collector, Himmatnagar. Thereof, an amending deed to the original sale-deed came to be executed for giving effect to the change in the Block No. i.e. to reflect Block No.139 paiki 1 instead of Block No.139 and no other changes were made to the original sale-deed. Thereafter, the petitioner being public Trust, is involved in various activities for the public at large and for that purpose, it had purchased the land in question for small scale industries and also to set-up training centres for the purpose of training people for the industry so that they can earn livelihood. Accordingly, the petitioner Trust applied before the learned Collector, Sabarkantha under the provision of Section 63AA of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Tenancy Act’) for granting certificate and the same came to be rejected by the District Collector vide its order dated 10.1.2013. It was observed by the learned Collector that since the petitioner Trust had purchased the agricultural land without prior sanction of the competent authority and, therefore, no permission is required to be given under Section 63 of the Tenancy and Agricultural Act, 1989.

2.2 It is alleged that this order was passed without granting any opportunity of hearing to the petition Trust and in fragrant of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1948 against which the petitioner preferred revision application before the Learned SSRD, who by his order dated 8.1.2017, remanded the matter back to the learned Collector for deciding the same, after giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. In the said remand case, the petitioner - Trust produced Trust Registration Certificate, Income Tax Exemption Certificate, etc. and the Project Report that the petitioner- Trust wished to commence accordingly. This application was also rejected by the District Collector by order dated 4.4.2018 on various grounds, with that rejection order, the petitioner again preferred revision

2.3 The petitioner has challenged the aforesaid order on various grounds set-out in the petition memo, which include:

(i) That the learned District Collector, Sabarkantha has mis-

understood and mis-interpreted the application of the petitioner to be one under Section 63 of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1948 whereas it was actually one under provisions of Section 63AA of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1948.

(ii) the land in question was purchased in the year 2008, the Trust had applied for permission/ grant of Certificate in the year 2011. The Trust has never sat idle and agitated points before the authority concerned.

(iii) The authorities have failed to appreciate that the petitioner Trust has received the permission sanctioning the block fragmentation only in the year 2010.

(iv) Respondent - Authorities have failed