Chhattisgarh High Court dismisses PIL against creation of new district

The Chhattisgarh High Court has recently dismissed as withdrawn a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for setting aside the notification dated 20.10.2021 issued by the state government whereby, a new district Sarangarh–Bilaigarh, is sought to be created by exercising the powers under sub-section (2) of Section 13 of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959 by altering the limits of Raigarh and Baloda Bazar–Bhatapara.

The PIL has been filed by Gram Panchayat, Kandola through its Sarpanch Onkar Patel.

Meena Shastri, Additional Advocate General (AAG), who appeared for the respondents, submitted that already four PILs are pending, and therefore, there is no justification for entertaining another on the same subject matter.

She submitted that, however, the petitioner had made an averment in the petition that to the best of his knowledge, no other PIL is pending on the same subject matter.

Rule 79 (1) of the High Court of Chhattisgarh Rules, 2007 requires that the petition shall contain the statement of the petitioner whether any petition was filed in the Court relating to the same cause and the result thereof, AAG added.

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At this juncture, S.P. Kale, Advocate for the petitioner, submitted that he may be permitted to withdraw this application with liberty to file an appropriate application in a pending public interest litigation petition.

Considering the above submission, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice N. K. Chandravanshi observed that this PIL is not entertained and accordingly, the petition is dismissed on withdrawal.

The Bench granted liberty to the petitioner to file an application.

“In the event of filing of such application, the same shall be considered in accordance with law,”

directed the Court.