The Rajasthan High Court dismissed a PIL challenging the order passed by the District Collector, Banswara by which certain land of the village which was recorded as gochar land has been converted for the purposes of construction and has been allotted for establishing police station after setting apart certain equal value of land for the pasture purposes in another adjoining village.
The Order was passed by the District Collector, Banswara on 01.04.2022.
Jubin Mehta , counsel for the petitioners submitted that the land set apart for the pasture purpose is not appropriate and therefore, the exchange is illegal and is liable to be set aside.
“The issue as to whether the land which has been set apart for the purposes of pasture land in lieu of the pasture land used for establishing the police station is an adequate/appropriate land, is a matter of policy which has to be considered by the authorities themselves on the basis of the opinion of experts, if any”, observed the Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rekha Borana.
The Court, in exercise of its extraordinary jurisdiction, in absence of material evidence regarding the suitability of the land, is not in a position to comment whether the land which has been set aside for pasture purposes is suitable for the said purpose or not.