The Rajasthan High Court recently dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed challenging a mutation entry executed in favour of farmers in 1997.
The petitioners sought to quash the mutation entry and declare the land in question as government land.
The Jodhpur Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Munnuri Laxman held that the matter was entirely within the domain of revenue authorities and that the petitioners sought to unsettle a settled position that had existed for several decades.
The PIL was dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000 to be deposited with the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority.
The court’s decision was based on the grounds that the petitioners had failed to establish a valid reason for challenging the mutation entry after such a long period.
The court also observed that the petitioners had not approached the revenue authorities with their grievances before filing the PIL.
In this case, the petitioners’ failure to establish a valid reason for challenging the mutation entry and their delay in approaching the court ultimately led to the dismissal of the PIL.