Tarun Kumar Mondal v. The Deputy Commissioner And ORS
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
[ CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR ] ...
WPA/109/2024 Shri Tarun Kumar Mondal ... Petitioner Vs.
The Deputy Commissioner and Ors. ... Respondents Mr. K. Vijay Kumar ...for the Petitioner Mr. V.D. Sivabalan Mr. Arun S. Kumar ...for the Respondents February 07, 2024 (M.A.Mobin) Item No.3 Learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a recorded tenant in respect of a land bearing Survey Nos. 209, 212/1 and 506/2/11 measuring an area of 0.9, 0.8 and 0.03 hectares respectively at Sita Nagar Village under Diglipur Tehsil in North & Middle Andaman District.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the petitioner was not in a position to sell the aforesaid plots as the circle rate of the concerned property was not determined by the authorities at the relevant point of time.
The petitioner filed the Writ Petition being WPA 483 of 2023 which was disposed of by an order dated March 16, 2023, by giving opportunity to the petitioner to apply before the concerned respondent authority by furnishing a written
representation offline requesting such authority to take an immediate step for assessment of the circle rate of the lands of the petitioner within a specified time frame. It appears from the record that pursuant to the direction passed by the Coordinate Bench dated March 16, 2023, No-dues/Non-encumbrance certificate and the Valuation Certificate has been issued by the concerned authorities.
The learned Advocate for the petitioner further submits that the respondent authorities are neither accepting the submission of the sale deed for registration either in online mode or through offline mode. A Coordinate Bench in WPA 754 of 2023 in the case of Omana Francis -Vs.- The Lt. Governor and Others passed an order on July 26, 2023 giving opportunity to the petitioner therein to submit a representation within a specified time frame and upon receipt of the same the respondent authority was directed to consider the petitioner's grievance and take necessary steps to redress her grievance either by amending the notification and allowing online presentation or by directing the appropriate authority to accept offline presentation.
The petitioner claims to have submitted a representation dated 01st February, 2024 alleging that there is no gateway open to upload the deed and other material documents for the purpose of registration in online mode and he requested the authority to allow him to file the
same in offline mode for the purpose of registration of the deed.
Learned Advocate appearing for the respondents/Administration submits that the petitioner after filing the said representation on 01st February, 2024 has filed this Writ Petition on the following date i.e. on 02nd February, 2024.
The learned Advocate for the Administration was right in submitting that the petitioner has approached this Court without giving a reasonable time to the authorities to consider his prayer contained in the said representation. However, taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner had to wait for a long time for registration of the sale deed not for his own fault, but on account of the inaction on the part of the authorities in not including the circle rate in the notification, this Court is of the considered view that a direction should be passed upon the concerned authority to dispose of the representation of the petitioner within a specified time frame.
WPA 109 of 2024 is disposed of by directing the Sub Registrar, Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Diglipur Tehsil, North & Middle Andaman District being the respondent No.2 herein to consider the representation of the petitioner dated 01st February, 2024 and to dispose of the same within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a server copy of this order upon giving an
opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and by passing a reasoned order.
The said respondent shall communicate the reasoned order to the petitioner immediately thereafter. Since, no affidavits have been called for the allegations contained in the Writ Petition shall not be deemed to have been admitted by the respondents. Parties to act on a server copy of this order duly collected from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties, subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.
(Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J.)