*Courts restrained from entertaining litigation on issue
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 10: In a major blow to the land mafia having backing of influential persons, Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan today directed the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu to ensure strict adherence to the schedule for demarcation of over 41,000 kanals of State land transferred to Jammu Development Authority. It has also directed the Director General of Police to provide police help as and when required so that demarcation teams do not face any resistance from any encroacher whosoever powerful he may be.
In order to ensure that the encroachers do not create any legal hurdle in carrying out demarcation of such a huge chunk of land, the Division Bench has restrained all the forums except the First Division Bench from entertaining any petition or litigation vis-à-vis land in question. Most importantly, the DB directed that the demarcation exercise shall be started from 14 locations, which, according to the Jammu Development Authority, are vulnerable to encroachments.
The Division Bench passed these significant orders in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Prof S K Bhalla Versus State of Jammu and Kashmir and Others, which is based on the exclusive report carried by EXCELSIOR in its edition dated April 13, 2014. The EXCELSIOR had reported that due to inordinate delay in demarcation despite repeated communications from the JDA, 66,000 kanals of State and Nazool land has been rendered vulnerable to encroachments by the mafia.
When the PIL came up for hearing, Chief Justice M M Kumar, in the open court, referred to one more exclusive news carried by EXCELSIOR in today’s edition and remarked, “I have gone through the news paper mentioning that Revenue Department has issued schedule for demarcation of over 41,000 kanals of land and this is a positive development in this PIL”.
“In pursuance of order dated November 12, 2014 passed by this court, status reports on behalf of Jammu Development Authority and Deputy Commissioner Jammu have been filed. In principle, it has been agreed by both the authorities to undertake the demarcation process of the land which was allotted to JDA by the State Government so as to avoid any encroachment on this open land”, the Division Bench observed.
However, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad appearing for the PIL prayed for issuance of directions to different officers so that demarcation is carried out as per the schedule fixed by the Revenue Department and land mafia having backing of influential persons may not create any trouble for the demarcation teams. “The land which is to be demarcated is open land and there is apprehension that the powerful lobbies of encroachers might resist the demarcation process and therefore, police cell to execute the demarcation work be provided”, he added.
He further prayed that directions should be passed so that encroachers and land mafia may not get any sort of relief from the courts below in order to create legal hurdles in completion of demarcation, which is pending during the past more than 40 years.
In the status report, the Revenue Department submitted that a detailed order covering various issues has been passed and committees have been constituted for demarcation of land and to dispose of all the cases in time bound manner. “A tentative schedule for demarcation of the land has been fixed between December 26, 2014 to April 30, 2015”, the status report said.
JDA in its status report submitted that Deputy Commissioner Jammu has been requested to take on priority 14 locations, which are vulnerable to encroachments. “The documents pertaining to the total quantum of land transferred to JDA village wise and Khasra number wise has been furnished to the Revenue Department”, the report said.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad for the PIL, Additional Advocate General, H A Siddiqui for the Revenue Department and Advocate Adarsh Sharma and Advocate Sindhu Sharma for the JDA, Division Bench said, “the Deputy Commissioner Jammu is advised to undertake the demarcation of 14 locations identified by JDA on priority basis so that there is no immediate encroachment on this open land”.
“We wish that the schedule given by the Deputy Commissioner Jammu is strictly adhered to and the demarcation is carried in accordance with Rules 17 and 18 or any other rule of the J&K Land Revenue Rules, 1969”, DB said, adding “if demarcation teams face any resistance from any encroacher whosoever powerful he may be, then the DGP of the State is directed to send police help through various agencies”.
“The apprehensions expressed by the counsel for the PIL should be completely allayed by the timely police help without any bias so that the demarcation teams may discharge their duties in accordance with law without fear or ill will”, the DB said, adding “the demarcation shall preferably be video-graphed and the Regional Director, Surveys and Land Records, who is also known as Director Land Records, Jammu is also directed to associate with the demarcation process”.
Even the Divisional Commissioner Jammu was directed to sort out local issues between JDA and Revenue Department by holding meetings to be presided over by him only. “All the stakeholders shall ensure quick and efficient execution of the schedule provided by the Deputy Commissioner Jammu”, the DB added.
“This court being the Custodia Legis directs that no petition or other litigation shall be entertained by any other forum and the same should be listed before the First Division Bench”, the High Court said and directed the Registry to list the matter in the second week of February 2015 to gaze the progress made in the demarcation.
The 14 villages, which will be taken up for demarcation on priority are Sunjwan, Kore Jagir, Deeli, Rakh Raipur, Narwal Bala, Patoli Mangotrian, Toph Sherkhania, Jammu Khas, Chack Changerwan, Rakh Nagbani, Raipur Domana, Raipur Jagir, Trilokpur and Khanpur Bhawan.
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