Gujarat High Court Issues Guidelines To Be Complied By Committee Dealing With Land Grabbing Proceedings

While hearing a land grabbing case, the Gujarat High Court issued comprehensive guidelines to be followed by the Committee notified under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2020 and relevant rules which conducts inquiry in such cases. The guidelines were issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi for compliance by the Committee that conducts the inquiry under the Gujarat Land Grabbing Act, 2020 and Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Rules, 2020 states:“(1) Each District Committee shall have a Secretariat. The appointment for which shall be made as soon as possible. (2) The Committee may issue a notice to the parties before taking final decision, if it thinks fit in a given case. (3) The decision of the Committee shall be communicated to the parties. (4) The Inquiry Officer while conducting the inquiry as per subrule (5) of Rule 5 of the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Rules, 2020 shall take into consideration all the documents filed by the parties during the course of inquiry including the revenue records for submission of the inquiry report.(5) The Coram of the Committee should be as per Notification dated 16.12.2020 as applicable as on date. (6) The Coram of the Committee as mentioned in the Notification dated 16.12.2020 would only be comprised of the officers who are members constituting the committee as per the said notification.”The court further said, "The learned advocates have exchanged the proposed guidelines and with the able assistance of the learned advocates, the following guidelines are being framed, which are to be notified by the competent officer of the State, so that there shall be no recurrence of such an incident which has occurred in the present case...This order be intimated to the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Gujarat, for notifying the guidelines for strict compliance throughout the State". The court passed the order while disposing of a plea moved by a 65-year-old tenant seeking quashing of an FIR registered against him for land grabbing under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act as well as the IPC, pursuant to proceedings initiated against the petitioner under the 2020 Act. The 2023 FIR was lodged under Sections 4(1) (prohibits land grabbing by any person, either directly or indirectly), 4(2) (any person who continues to occupy grabbed land, other than a lawful tenant is guilty), 4(3) (offenders under the act faces imprisonment for a term ranging from 10 to 14 years and a fine that may extend up to the Market Value) and 5(C) (penalties for aiding or abetting land grabbing offences) of the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2020. The offences alleged against the petitioner under the IPC include criminal intimidation and criminal trespass. The petitioner also challenged the vires of the Land Grabbing Act and Rules 2020, as ultra vires to the Constitution of India specifically Article 14 (Right to Equality), Article 20 (Right against Self-Incrimination) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty).The petitioner said that he had occupied the concerned property for over 46-years as a tenant and had executed a rent agreement with the predecessor-in-interest wherein, he occupied a part of the land, where he ran a timber and hardware business. He said that when he sent a money order for payment of rent for 2022-2023 the respondent complainant refused to accept the rent and he thereafter received a legal notice asking to vacate the land within 30 days. The reason given by the complainant was that premises were given on rent for running timber mart however petitioner was allegedly running hardware instead and petitioner has been giving rent irregularly. Petitioner was subsequently served a notice by the collector under the 2020 Act based on a written complaint of the complainant, wherein a case was also registered against him. The petitioner filed a detailed reply before the Collector. He said that it appears that the Collector passed an order against him which was not informed to him or communicated. Pursuant to this order an FIR was registered. The petitioner thereafter moved the high court. Notably the committee defined under Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act means a committee notified from time to time by the State Government under the chairmanship of District Collector for the purposes of this Act. As per the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Rules, 2020 the Committee is to meet at least once every 15 days as decided by the Chairman; the complaints, applications received by the District Collector are sent to the Committee by Member Secretary. The Committee shall scrutinize the inquiry report and decides the course of action and refers the case to the Special Court if it deems fir and informs the applicant of its decision.Inquiry by committeeThe rules further state that on receipt of an application, the District Collector entrusts the inquiry to the to the committee...

Gujarat High Court Issues Guidelines To Be Complied By Committee Dealing With Land Grabbing Proceedings

Lovina B Thakkar

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