- (1.) Instant intra -court appeal has been preferred by the State of Rajasthan assailing order of the ld.Single Judge dt. 16th February 2005.
(2.) At the outset, it may be noticed that we are dealing with the unamended Sec. 173 -A of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 1959 and the scope of Sec. 173 -A of the Act has been examined by the Apex Court in the judgment of State of Rajasthan and Others v/s. Pareshar Soni reported in : (2007) 14 SCC 144.
(3.) Indisputably, the subject land has neither been allotted by the Municipal Corporation or the State Government nor any restriction has been placed on its user and the question is whether the State authorities are justified in demanding conversion charges for change of land use under the unamended Sec. 173 -A of the Act. The Apex Court while examining the scope of unamended Sec. 173 -A of the Act observed ad infra: - - "19. We, therefore, have to accept the conclusion of the Division Bench that the property had neither been allotted by the Municipal Corporation or by the State Government or that any restriction had been placed on its user. Consequently, the question of demanding conversion charges for change of user would also not arise and the amended provisions of sub -section (4) of Sec. 173 -A would also have no application to the facts of the case, since it is controlled by the very opening words that no person shall use or permit the use of any land situated in any municipal area, for the purpose other than that for which such land was originally allotted or sold to any person by the State Government. If the basis on which sub -section (4) of Sec. 173 -A could be applied is not available to the petitioner the demand raised by it towards conversion charges is also not maintainable.";