SATYA NARAYAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have challenged the order dated 20.3.2006/10.4.2006 passed by the Collector, Vaishali in Misc. Case No. 67 of 2004-05. The land in dispute appertains to Khata No. 604, Plot Nos. 1231, 801 (new) & 2278 (new) measuring 1 acres 91 decimals situated in Village-Arara, Hajipur Sadar Police Station in the district of Vaishali.

(2.) The aforesaid lands were recorded in the name of Visheshwar Pratap Shahi. Visheshwar Pratap Shahi and his brother Rameshwar Pratap Shahi settled the aforesaid lands in favour of the ancestors of Palakdhari Singh in the year 1939. The petitioners are the sons of Palakdhari Singh. It is the case of the petitioners that the said lands, in course of time, was converted into a Pokhar and was being exclusively used by the petitioners. The petitioners got their names mutated and were paying rent to the State of Bihar. The dispute arose when during the revisional survey, the lands aforesaid were recorded as Gram Panchayat-Arara.

(3.) The case of the State, on the other hand, is that the Circle Officer transferred the lands in question which were converted into a Pokhar in the year 1984 to the Fisheries Department. The Fisheries Department began to settle the Pokhar in favour of different persons which led to filing of Title Suit No. 112 of 1987. The suit was filed by the petitioners for grant of permanent injunction against the State of Bihar with a prayer that they should not settle the disputed plot and interfere in the peaceful possession of the plaintiffs-petitioners, and if necessary, to grant recovery of possession and also for declaration that the entry of the disputed land in the Sairat Register in the name of State of Bihar is entirely wrong. The suit was decreed in favour of the petitioners. In the said suit, the State of Bihar appeared and an intervention application was also filed by the Gram Panchayat-Arara. The Civil Court found that the lands were in possession of the petitioners on the basis of the rent receipts as well as on the basis of the evidence led in the suit. Title Appeal No. 23 of 1989 was filed by the State of Bihar against the decree and judgment passed in Title Suit No. 112 of 1987 on 7.4.1989.