- (1.) THIS petition has been filed challenging the judgment dated 27-3-2012 passed by the Board of Revenue Ajmer (herein after 'the Board') dismissing the petitioners' appeal and upholding the order dated 14-3-2011 passed by the Revenue Appellate Authority Sawai Madhopur.
(2.) THE facts of the case are that the District Collector Karauli vide order dated 16-8-2010 allotted land measuring 3.50 hectare out of 14.11 hectare of khasra No.1419 village Nangal Sherpur Tehsil Todabhim for construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur. The said allotment of land was put to challenge by the petitioners on the basis of their alleged possession over the land in dispute claiming that they had acquired khatedari rights over the said land, even though they did not seek for a formal order from the government or a declaration by a competent court. It was stated that consequently the allotment of land 3.50 hectare out of 14.11 hectare of khasra No.1419 village Nangal Sherpur Tehsil Todabhim for the construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur to Rajasthan Rajya Vidhyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (herein after 'RRVPNL') was wholly illegal, void and therefore liable to be set aside. The challenge was negatived in appeal by the Revenue Appellate Authority vide order dated 14-3-2012 and by the Board under its impugned order dated 27-3-2012. Heard counsel and perused the petition and the impugned orders. The case of the petitioners has been considered by the courts below in the context of the facts obtaining in this case. Resorting to the State Government's Circular dated 13-10-2005 and changing the classification of the land in Khasra No.1419 from pasture land to Siwai Chak to an extent of 3.50 hectare out of 14.11 hectare in khasra No.1419 village Nangal Sherpur, the District Collector Karauli allotted the said land for the construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur to RRVPNL. The case of the State Government in the challenge to the allotment before the Revenue Appellate Authority was that encroachment over land would not entail any right of consideration for allotment, more so when the trespass was over pasture land which could not be allotted for agricultural purposes at all. The submission was that encroachment over (pasture) land did not obstruct allotment of such land after its reclassification for public user. The Revenue Appellate Authority Sawai Madhpur and the Board on consideration of the matter dismissed the challenge by the petitioner. The Board relied upon judgments reported in [2008 RRD 454], [2002 RBJ (9) 139], and [2008 RRD 125] for the proposition that even encroached land, over which the trespasser did not have any semblance of right or title could be allotted by the land owner i.e. the State. It was also noted by the Board that the petitioners had at no point of time made any application for allotment of the land under the provisions of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Allotment (for Agriculture Purpose) Rules, 1970 (herein after 'the 1970 Rules), before the statutory authority, and land measuring 3.50 hectare out of 14.11 hectare of khasra No.1419 village Nangal Sherpur Tehsil Todabhim had been subsequent to reclassification, allotted for the public purpose i.e. construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur to RRVPNL. The Board therefore held the challenge to the allotment of land measuring 3.50 hectare out of 14.11 hectare of khasra No.1419 village Nangal Sherpur Tehsil Todabhim to RRVPNL vide order dated 16-8-2010 for construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur was without merit and the petitioner's appeal against the order dated 14-3-2011 passed by the Revenue Appellate Authority Sawai Madhopur was liable to be dismissed. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, and perused the material available on record of the writ petition.
(3.) COUNSEL for the petitioners has simply reiterated the case set up before the Revenue Appellate Authority and the Board and has submitted that encroachers have a right for allotment of agricultural land under Rule 20 of the 1970 Rules. Counsel however overlooks that the land over which allotment on the basis of possession is claimed was recorded as pasture land and could not be regularised or allotted in the face of the prohibition of Section 16 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act. In fact it appears that for this reason even an application for allotment of land had not been made by the petitioners and counsel admits that no such application had in fact been made by the petitioners. Further there can be no khatedari by adverse possession more so over pasture land. The petitioners had no right even to consideration for allotment of pasture land even under Rule 20 of the 1970 Rules. Classification of part of land in Khasra No.1419 was in fact changed with reference to circular dated 13-10-2005 issued by the Government. Simultaneous to re-classification of 3.50 hectare in Khasra No.1419 for the specific purpose of its allotment for the public purpose of construction of 132 KV GSS Nangal Sherpur, the allotment was made to RRVPNL. Such development work of public importance cannot be obstructed at the instance of an encroachers without a semblance of legal right. I therefore find no force in the writ petition, and the same is therefore dismissed. Stay application also stands dismissed.;