Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 21: In the much publicized Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting encroachment of 20 lakh kanals of State land, Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice B S Walia today directed Chief Secretary as well as Revenue Secretary to file a status report suggesting mechanism for removing encroachments and for restoring the encroached land to its original status.
When this PIL came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed submitted that there is complete non-serious attitude of the State Government towards the various orders passed by the Division Bench. He specifically referred order dated May 6, 2015 when the Division Bench headed by Justice Hasnain Massodi (since retired) had taken serious note of the inaction on the part of the State Government in not suggesting mechanism to the court for removing the encroachment from the State land measuring more than 20 lakh kanal. The Division Bench on this date had requisitioned a comprehensive report from the State Government till June 10, 2015.
Advocate Ahmed further submitted that on the directions of the Division Bench then headed by Chief Justice both Divisional Commissioners, Jammu/Kashmir filed district wise list of encroachers and the senior officers of State Government confirmed the encroachment of 20 lakh kanals of State land by powerful land mafia. “It is unfortunate that repeated orders passed by the Division Bench have been taken casually by the State Government and it appears that the Government lacks the will to proceed against the land mafia which has apparently its tentacles in the bureaucracy”, he added.
On this, Division Bench headed by First Puisne Judge Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, in the open court, directed Senior AAG Seema Khajooria Shekhar and Deputy Advocate General Ahsan Mirza to take note of the directions passed by the DB on May 6, 2015 and file a comprehensive report on behalf of Chief Secretary and Revenue Secretary suggesting mechanism for removing the encroachments and restoring the encroached State land to its original status.
Deputy Advocate General Ahsan Mirza while resisting the contentions of Advocate Ahmed submitted that the State is passing through a turmoil and it is not possible at this stage to carry out evictions as Divisional Commissioners are overburdened with other important issues and removing encroachments at this stage will further aggravate the ongoing situation. However, the Division Bench did not agree with the contentions of Deputy AG.
While countering the stand taken by Deputy AG Ahsan Mirza, Advocate Ahmed submitted that ‘Transfer Industry’ is functional in the State Government despite the turmoil and for carrying out the directions of the Division Bench the lame excuses are being taken just to shield the powerful land mafia having connections with the people in power.
Advocate Ahmed further submitted that big sharks have encroached a major portion of the State land at village Jammu Khas near 4th Tawi Bridge and the land mafia includes politicians and some police officers also.
Deputy Advocate General Ahsan Mirza confronted with such a situation expressed his ignorance over the submission of the inquiry report by Deputy Commissioner Jammu. However, Advocate Ahmed referred a communication No. DCJ/ 2016-17/PS/909-14 dated September 19, 2016 whereby the Deputy Commissioner Jammu has forwarded his inquiry report to the Divisional Commissioner with copy of the communication to the counsel for the petitioner and other functionaries of State Government.
The Division Bench at this stage directed Deputy Advocate General Ahsan Mirza appearing for the Revenue Department to produce the inquiry report of Deputy Commissioner Jammu stated to have been forwarded to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu on the next date before the Bench.
Advocate Ahmed also invited the attention of the Division Bench towards the order passed by the court on December 10, 2014 whereby directions were issued for demarcation of the entire JDA land by the VC JDA and Deputy Commissioner Jammu. He submitted that more than sixty thousand kanals of State land was transferred to the JDA by State Government but only five thousand kanals of land is stated to be with JDA and rest of the JDA land has been encroached by the land mafia and no steps are being taken to retrieve the encroached land.
At this stage, Advocate Adarsh Sharma appearing on behalf of JDA submitted that a status report was filed on September 15, 2015 wherein it was divulged that a schedule was communicated for the demarcation to the revenue field agency but the schedule was not adhered to due to non-availability of staff and other resources. He requested the Division Bench to give him some more time to file the latest status of demarcation.
The Division Bench directed Advocate Adarsh Sharma appearing for JDA to file the latest status of the demarcation before the adjourned date of hearing.
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