The Gauhati High Court has disposed of a PIL filed against the decision of the state government to shift the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Divisional Office regarding water supply, located at Nazira to Sonari, directing the petitioner to approach the Assam government regarding the same.
The Division Bench of Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Manish Choudhury said on October 7 that they were not convinced with the submission advanced before the High Court by the Counsel for the petitioners for the reason that:-
(1) It pertains to a policy decision of the state government to reorganise its administration.
(2) The notification itself very clearly mentions under paragraph (c) that the jurisdiction of the Division will be same as the administrative jurisdiction of Charaideo district, which is 39 GPs under Sapekhati, West Abhoypuria (Sonari), Sonari (Mahmora), Lakwa & Sivasagar (Part) Development Block.
Further, the Court observed that the notification was issued pursuant to a decision of the Council of Ministers to dispense with administrative bottlenecks in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in the newly-formed districts.
The decision of the state government is purely in the realm of administrative exigency and as such, the Bench do not see involvement of any public interest, which would be adversely affected by the aforesaid notification, the Court observed.
“Under the circumstances, we are not inclined to entertain this petition. However, since it is a policy decision, certainly the Government can always review the same if it so desires, for which the petitioners are at liberty to approach the competent authority to raise all their grievances, which we hope the authorities will look into and the authorities will take a decision, if approached, without being influenced by any observation made by this Court in this PIL,” the order read.
The Assam government had shifted the district headquarter of Charaideo by renaming it as Charaideo PHE Division vide notification dated September 4, 2021.