Suprava Pradhan v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.
January 19, 2023 ARDR (62) WPA 4293 of 2022 Suprava Pradhan Vs.
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Adv. Bhaskar Chandra Manna, ...for the petitioner.
Adv. Chandi Charan De, Adv. Haripada Maity, ...for the State.
Affidavit of service filed by the petitioner is taken on record.
The petitioner contends that she has been occupying vested land adjoining her raiyati land for quite some time and applied for issuance of long term lease in respect of the said land in her favour. In response to her letter, she was informed by the District Land & Land Reforms Officer, Purba Medinipur that the proposed long term lease rent would be Rs.50,000/- and willingness of the petitioner to pay the said amount was asked for. Thereafter several communications were made between the departments inter se and also with the petitioner and proposal for long term settlement of the land in question in favour of the petitioner was forwarded to the Joint Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Land and Land Reforms Department by the District Land & Land Reforms Officer, Purba Medinipur. Subsequently, the petitioner also filed an application on 3rd January, 2022 for approval of the said
lease in her favour before the respondent authority, but to no effect.
Learned counsel for the petitioner has handed up a letter issued by the Deputy Secretary to the Government of West Bengal to her during pendency of the writ petition (on 25th November, 2022) requesting the petitioner to attend a hearing and exercise her consent for payment of the salami and rent for the long term lease as determined by the Government. It is submitted that though the petitioner attended the said hearing, no further communication has been made to her by the authority.
It is submitted on behalf of the State respondents that since the matter is pending for long, the concerned authority, being the 3rd respondent herein, be directed to take necessary steps for approval pending before the authority and communicate the same to the petitioner. In view of the above, the writ petition being WPA 4293 of 2022 is disposed of directing 3rd respondent to take necessary steps for approval of the long term lease in favour of the petitioner in terms of the applications filed by the petitioner as well as the inter-departmental communications made by the authority. The entire exercise is expected to be completed within one month from the date of communication of this order.
Since no affidavit is invited, the allegations contained in the petition are deemed not to be admitted. There shall however, be no order as to costs.
Urgent certified website copy of this order, if applied for, be furnished to the parties upon compliance of necessary formalities.
(Suvra Ghosh, J.)