Allahabad HC raps land authority for striking owner's name off property, razing structure

Lucknow, Dec 26 (PTI) The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court took a strong exception to the removal of a landowner's name from records and demolition of a structure on the said land, without giving the owner an opportunity for hearing.

Directing rectification of records, the court ordered that the land in question be handed over back to the petitioner in the case.

The order was passed by a single-judge bench of Justice Alok Mathur on December 19 on a petition filed by Savitri Sonkar.

The court set aside the order passed by the SDM concerned and imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on the government.

It said that the compensation should be paid to the petitioner within two months.

It has also ordered an inquiry into the role of the revenue officials, to be conducted by an officer of the additional chief secretary level.

The petitioner had stated that the land in question, in the Devnandanpur village of Raebareli district, belonged to her, and her name also appeared in the revenue records.

Despite this, it was submitted, the SDM concerned, without notice or hearing, took action under Section 38 of the UP Revenue Code (correction of error and omission).

On February 10, the petitioner's name was removed from the records, and the land was declared as Gram Sabha land.

Based on this order, on March 24, the petitioner's structure on the land was demolished, and it was handed over to the GST department.

In its order, the court stated that the record correction proceedings under Section 38 were illegal and arbitrary.

The court noted that the petitioner was not given any notice or afforded an opportunity to be heard, even though a 1975 decree regarding the disputed land already existed. Therefore, Section 38 could not be invoked in this case, it clarified.

The court further stated that the demolition action was neither in accordance with Section 67 of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code (power to prevent damage, misappropriation and wrongful occupation of Gram Panchayat property) nor with the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.

It also stated that merely quashing the order would not be sufficient to provide complete justice, as the actions of the state authorities had caused serious damage to the petitioner's property.

On this basis, it imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on the state government.

The court directed the state government and the officials concerned to hand over the disputed land to the petitioner within two weeks from the date of presentation of a certified copy of the order.

The state government was ordered to identify the officials responsible and take action against them, and to recover the costs paid to the petitioner from the concerned officials. PTI COR NAV PRK PRK