The Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction against the respondent authorities to maintain the purpose of worshiping ‘Sarna Tree’ (Devsthali) of gram panchayat Kotal as mentioned in the revenue record of the village and delete the name of respondents which was illegally entered in the revenue record.
Akath Kumar Yadav, counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a benevolent citizen and permanent resident of village Gram Panchayat Kotal. The petitioner by way of the petition represents a large number of local residents of village Gram Panchayat Kotal and other adjoining localities. The local residents particularly in village Gram Panchayat Kotal are using the disputed land as Dev Sthali (Sarna Tree) because they have worshiped the Sarna Tree as mother since long age.
The disputed land has been recorded in the government revenue record as a grassland which comes under the Nistari land as per Section 237 of Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959 and as per said section the nature of land shall not be changed without prior permission and sanction of the government and for the land of Nistari the Supreme Court issued a guideline and according to said guideline the State Government also circulated a mandatory circular to every Collector of District regarding the protection of Nistari land, the respondent State Authorities with an intention to grant due favour of respondents allowing them to register their names in the land records and as such, prays for grant of the relief as aforesaid.
At the very outset, a preliminary objection has been raised by the State counsel regarding maintainability of this present public interest litigation as the petitioner has efficacious remedy under the Code of 1959 .
Considering the prayers made by the petitioner in the present petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal noted that the petitioner has efficacious remedy under the Code of 1959 and without availing the said remedy, the petitioner has rushed to the Court, as such, the present public interest litigation is dismissed with a liberty to the petitioner to raise his grievance before the appropriate authorities under the provisions of the Code of 1959.