- (1.) THE petition portrays a sordid tale of widow of an Ex -Serviceman who is languishing for justice since 2004.
(2.) FACTS apposite giving rise to this writ petition are detailed as under: Husband of the petitioner Shri Raghunath Singh, after retirement from Indian Army applied for allotment of agricultural land under Rule 12 -A of the Rajasthan Colonisation (Allotment and Sale of Government Land in Rajasthan Canal Colony Area) Rules, 1975 (for short, 'Rules of 1975') in the year 1985. Under Rule 12A of the Rules of 1975, there is a provision for allotment of land to Ex -Servicemen out of the land reserved for the purpose under Rule 6 of the Rules of 1975. Complete text of Rule 12 -A reads as under: 12 -A. Allotment of land to Ex - Servicemen. - Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, allotment of land to Ex -Servicemen shall be made in the following manner: - (i) Allotment of Government land to Ex -Ser - vicemen shall be made out of the land re - served for the purpose under rule 6 of these rules. (ii) The Colonisation Commissioner keeping in view of the availability of land may from time to time decide to invite applications from the Ex -Servicemen according to the priorities as laid down under rule 7 for the landless persons through the Collector of the district. (iii) The public notice for such applicant shall be issued under the signature of the Coloni - sation Commissioner or any other officer au - thorised by him inviting applications for al - lotment within the time fixed therein, which shall not be less than 30 days from the date of such notice, or within such time as may be extended from time to time. (iv) Copies of such notice shall be affixed at the following places for wide publicity name - ly: - (a) Notice Board of the Colonisation Commissioner, (b) Notice Board of the Collector of the District, (c) Notice Board of the Secretary Sol - diers, Sailors and Airmen's Board of the district. (v) An Ex -Servicemen desiring allotment of land shall submit his application for allot - ment in triplicate in form XIV to the Collec - tor of the district alongwith an affidavit that he is an Ex -Serviceman under these rules, who shall immediately register it in a regis - ter maintained by him in form XV and issue to applicant receipt in form XVI. The applica - tion so submitted shall be verified by the ap - plicant as plaint according to the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act V of 1908) and the affidavit, containing true and correct factual information as re - quired in the application shall be verified by a magistrate or an Oath Commissioner. (vi) The Collector of the district shall scruti - nise the application and the affidavit an - nexed thereto and shall conduct or get con - ducted such enquiry as he may consider necessary for finding the true state of facts mentioned in the application. Thereafter, he shall prepare his report in form XVII. (vii) The Collector of the District shall sent two copies of the application alongwith re - port in form XVII to the Colonisation Com - missioner who shall keep one copy of the application in his office and forward the oth - er copy with report in form XVII to the con - cerned Allotting Authority for allotment of land. The allotting Authority shall register such application in the register to be main - tained by him in form XV. The Allotting Au - thority after satisfying himself about the eli - gibility of the applicant shall allot each appli - cant Government land to the extent provid - ed in sub -rule (2) of rule 5 out of the area reserved for such applicant on the. terms and conditions as laid down in these rules. (vii -A) When there are more than one appli - cant, allotment shall be made by drawal of lots in the following manner: - (a) the Colonisation Commissioner shall prepare a list of persons whose applications have been received within time and who fulfil the eligibility condi - tion for allotment of land under these rules: (b) the number of persons to whom land may be allotted will be deter - mined by the Allotting Authority on the basis of total area of land available for allotment divided by 25. (c) lots will be drawn by the Allotting Authority from amongst applicants found eligible under clause (a) above, to select the persons eligible for allot - ment of land equal to the number de - termined under clause (b) above. In the same draw of lots, additional per - sons equal to 25% of the number of persons determined under clause (b) above, shall be selected and arranged in the order, in accordance with the re - sult of the drawal of lots and be kept on the waiting list. The waiting list shall remain valid till the land available for allotment is exhausted; (d) in case the land available for allot - ment exceeds the requirement of the land to be allotted to persons declared successful on the basis of the draw of lots, persons from the waiting list in their respective order may be consid - ered for allotment of land; (e) the applicants declared successful and entitled to allotment of land under clauses (c) and (d) above, will be ar - ranged in homogeneous groups on the basis of tehsil, districts and regions to which they belong; (f) compact area of land, out of total area available for allotment, commen - surate with the requirement of each group formed under clause (c) shall be set apart for each such group and the allotment of land to each person be - longing to the same group shall be made in the area thus set apart on the basis of separate draw of lots held amongst person belonging to such group. (vii -B) All allotments of Government land under this rule shall be made by the Allot - ting Authority in consultation with the Advi - sory Committee consisting of the following members, namely: - (a) Member of the Rajasthan Legisla - tive Assembly in whose Constituency the land proposed to be allotted is situ - ated. (b) Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat in whose jurisdiction such land is situated (c) Secretary of Zila Sainik Board con - cerned. (d) A representative of the Director - General of Re -settlement, as nominat - ed by him, and (e) Colonisation Tehsildar of the Tehsil in which the land is situated. (f) Sub -Divisional Officer of the con - cerned sub -division as a representative of District Collector. The provision of rule 13 will apply mutatis mutandis, to this advisory committee to the extent they are not provided in this rule. (viii) Separate lists of persons whose appli - cations have been granted or rejected shall be affixed forthwith on the Notice Board of the Colony Tehsil or Revenue Tehsil in whose jurisdiction the land is situated. Such publication shall be deemed to be sufficient notice to the applicants of the orders passed on the applications. (ix) The Allotting Authority shall issue allot - ment order in form XII a copy of which shall be sent to the allottee, Colonisation Tehsil - dar, Collector of the district and the Coloni - sation Commissioner. (x) The Ex -Serviceman, who has been allot - ted land under rules, shall take possession of the land within one month from the date of receipt of allotment order in form XII. In case of his failure to take possession of the land with the said period the allottee shall be deemed to have declined the allotment and the land shall thereafter, be available for re -allotment to any other Ex -Serviceman under these rules. (xi) The Colonisation Tehsildar shall han - dover possession of the allotted land to the allottee and issue a certificate to that effect to the allottee. A copy of the certificate shall also be forwarded to the Allotting Authority Collector of the district and the Colonisation Commissioner. The application submitted by petitioner's husband remained pending with the allotting authority for almost three decades and finally the land measuring 23.08 bigha (command) at Tehsil Mohangarh -1 Chak 2 ULM in Murabba No.138/53 and 0.17 uncommand land, total measuring 24.05 bigha was proposed to be allotted to Shri Raghunath Singh vide letter/notice dated 28th of December 2004 asking him to deposit a sum of Rs.10,720 being 5% of the value of the land alongwith relevant documents within stipulated time i.e. up to 31st January 2005. By the time proposed allotment was made, petitioner's husband took his last breath on 19th March 2004 i.e. approximately nine months anterior to the aforesaid proposed allotment order. Be that as it may, on receipt of the order, the petitioner visited the office of second respondent to deposit the first instalment of Rs.10,720 along with requisite documents for facilitating allotment of land in her favour and consequential actions. However, as per the version of the petitioner, respondent refused to accept the amount from petitioner and asked her to submit some more documents which were not mentioned in the notice/letter dated 28th of December 2004.
(3.) WHILE asking the petitioner to submit additional documents, an assurance was given to her that requisite allotment order shall be issued on receipt of additional documents. Thereupon, according to petitioner, the requisite documents were submitted, viz., Death Certificate of her Late husband Raghunath Singh and Succession Certificate but to her dismay even after receipt of these documents the respondent did not show any favourable gesture. It so happened that by the end of December 2005 the respondents made endeavor to solicit certain information about the petitioner from Sainik Kalyan Board, Chirawa, which was necessary for making allotment in her favour. On coming to know the efforts made by the respondents, the petitioner immediately paid a personal visit to the office of Sainik Kalyan Board at Chirawa and answered all the required queries of the officials of the Government, however, nothing turned out thereafter.;