The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to strictly follow the order of the Supreme Court to free village and government land of encroachment.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prakash Padiya passed this order while hearing a PIL filed by Mrityunjay Singh. The petitioner had sought a writ of mandamus directing respondent No.2 to take serious action against the illegal encroachment on Arazi No.73 area 0.0320 and Arazi No.52/248 area 0.0040 recorded as non-agricultural land, has been illegally occupied by respondent Ram Ji Singh and Babban Singh respectively.
When the petitioner came to know the aforesaid fact, he submitted a representation against Ram Ji Singh and Babban Singh before the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Belthra Road, Ballia on December 19, 2017.
The Court said that despite clear instructions in the Jagpal Singh case, due to non-action, petitions are being filed continuously in the High Court, while the Apex Court has ordered to take action by carrying out surveillance system by creating surveillance mechanism.
The Court has asked the general secretary to send a copy of the order to the Secretary Revenue and all the DMs.
The Court said that the Apex Court has given a clear order that the DM will have to investigate and take action to remove the encroachment as soon as the complaint is received. If the guidelines are to be taken, he will get it from the committee. Despite this, petitions are coming in such cases.
The Court directed the Petitioner to place his complaint before the SDM and the SDM should be investigated immediately and take action. In the Petition, the opposition is accused of taking possession of the land of the village house and building a house.
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So far as the present PIL is concerned, a liberty is granted to the Petitioner to approach the District Magistrate Ballia as well as Sub Divisional Magistrate concerned along with a copy of this order. The respondents shall get appropriate inquiry made and take the required action to protect land in question from the illegal encroachments as per law laid down by the Apex Court, expeditiously but after providing the opportunity of hearing to the parties concerned.
In the special facts and circumstances of the case, the Register General is directed to communicate a copy of this order to the Principal Secretary, Revenue, Government of Uttar Pradesh, who shall circulate a copy of this order to all the Divisional Commissioners as well as the District Magistrates so that number of such types of cases coming to this Court may be checked.