Manjit Nath And Others v. The Sub Divisional Officer

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

[ CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR *** WPA/346/2022 Manjit Nath and others Vs.

The Sub Divisional Officer Ms.Anjili Nag ... for the petitioner Mr. V.D.Sivabalan ... for the respondent August 17, 2023 [SR] Item No.3 Despite repeated extension of time for filing opposition, the same has not been filed till date. The matter is pending for nearly a year.

The order of the Sub Divisional Officer, South Andaman dated 23rd July, 2022 rejecting the prayer of the petitioners seeking diversion of their land is impugned herein.

It appears that the prayer of the petitioners stood rejected relying upon a field status report received from the Tehsildar, Port Blair mentioning that the individual share of the petitioner has not been reflected in the records. The impugned order mentions that four of the petitioners are not having any construction and only one has a RCC building standing. The authority allegedly cannot ascertain the share of the petitioners.

The Sub Divisional Officer directed the petitioners to apply afresh for diversion.

Learned advocate representing the petitioners submits that the field status report as relied upon by the Sub

Divisional Officer was never supplied to them. The petitioners are not aware of the contents of the field status report relying upon which the prayer of the petitioners was refused. On a perusal of the impugned order, it appears that out of the 4546 sq.mts in survey No.78 the authority permitted diversion of an area of 2400 sq.mts into house site and some part of the land belonging to the petitioners remain undiverted.

The impugned order does not clearly specify the ground for rejecting the prayer for diversion made by the petitioners. Moreover, the field status report was never supplied to the petitioners.

The Sub Divisional Officer ought to have forwarded the field status report to the petitioners and permitted them to make their respective submission prior to rejecting their claim.

That not being done, the impugned order suffers from violation of the principle of natural justice. The order impugned appears to be a cryptic one without any valid ground being mentioned for rejection of the prayer of the petitioners.

In view of the above, the impugned order is liable to be set aside and is accordingly set aside.

The Sub Divisional Officer is directed to forward the field status report to the petitioners and afford an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners to put forward their respective stand.

A decision shall be taken by the Sub Divisional Officer after hearing all the necessary parties at the earliest but

positively within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

The writ petition being WPA/346/2022 stands disposed of.

Urgent certified photocopy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously on compliance of usual legal formalities.

( Amrita Sinha, J. )