Government officials are legally obligated to implement social welfare schemes for landless and poor citizens without undue delay, as such schemes are extensions of constitutional rights to equality and basic amenities; administrative negligence in this regard is legally implausible.

ORAL JUDGMENT

At the very outset, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners seeks permission to implead the Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara as respondent No. 7 in the present writ application during the course of the day.

Permission is granted.

Heard the learned counsel for the respective parties.

The petitioners have approached this Court with a solitary relief for issuing a direction to the respondents herein for settlement of the land in their favour as they are landless persons on the strength of a letter dated 26.02.2010 issued by the Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara.

It is the further case of the petitioners that they hail from Scheduled Caste category and being landless, they have been residing upon the piece of land, appertaining to Thana No. 236, Khata No. 377, Khesra No. 1363/2147 and Mauja- Pakari, for the last several years. It is pointed out that the land on which the petitioners have been residing is Kaiser-i-Hind land.

On the representations of the petitioners for settlement of the land by issuing a Basgit Parcha in their favour, the respondent No. 4, i.e., the Additional Collector-Cum- Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara, vide Letter No. 10 dated 26.02.2010, requested respondent No. 7, i.e., the Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara, that in view of the report of the Circle Officer, Ara Sadar (respondent No. 6) for implementation of I.H.S.D.P. Scheme related to construction of houses for the landless persons, the No Objection Certificate is required and considering the aforesaid aspect of the matter, necessary directions be issued at the earliest.

As evident from the preceding paragraph, the Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara (respondent No. 4) vide Letter No. 10 dated 26.02.2010 wrote a letter to the Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara with a request to issue No Objection Certificate for the land which is situated near Ambedkar colony as this land has been selected for constructing houses for the landless/poor persons under the I.H.S.D.P. Scheme since this land is registered in the name of Public Works Department. The Additional Collector-Cum- Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara has written this letter (Annexure-P/1 to the writ application) in view of the report, as contained in Letter No. 118 dated 01.02.2010, submitted by the Circle Officer, Ara Sadar (respondent No. 6).

The learned counsel for the petitioners contends that since 2010 till date, the matter is still pending before the concerned respondent for issuance of No Objection Certificate and in absence of the same, the petitioners have been waiting for their houses to be constructed under the aforesaid scheme by the Government.

The petitioners have also filed various representations before all the concerned respondents, but till date, no action has been taken by them and they are simply sitting over the matter without discharging their statutory duty, which they are saddled with.

The learned AC to GP-27 appearing on behalf of the State submits that since the matter of the petitioners are related to settlement of land for construction of houses and the matter is still pending before the competent authority for issuance of No Objection Certificate, the petitioners may be directed to approach the concerned authority again and in this view of the matter, this writ application appears to be misconceived.

Annexure-P/1 appended to the writ application indisputably evince that considering the representations of the petitioners on account of them being landless, hailing from the Scheduled Caste category, the Additional Collector-Cum- Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara requested the Executive Engineer, Shahaba