RAJESH SHANKAR,J. - (1.) The present writ petition has been filed for issuance of direction upon the respondent no. 2 to consider the appeals preferred by the petitioners with a further prayer for staying the operation/implementation of the orders dated 13.10.2016 (Annexure-8 to the writ petition) passed by the respondent no. 3 in B.P.L.E. Case No. 130 of 2016, B.P.L.E. Case No. 136 to B.P.L.E. Case No. 148 of 2016 and B.P.L.E. Case no. 150 of 2016, whereby the respondent no. 3 has directed the petitioners to remove their respective shops within a period of three weeks from the date of the order.
(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the land in question pertains to plot no. 20 in Mouza-Ghorabandha and the same is not a forest land. The petitioners have been running their respective shops having an area of 150 Sq.ft. - 200 Sq.ft. each over the said land for more than three decades. Earlier, the petitioners' association i.e. "Kharangajhar Bazar Bikash Samiti" preferred a writ petition being W.P.(C) No. 1013 of 2014 against the notice dated 27.01.2014, whereby the petitioners/Samiti were directed to vacate the land in question. A Bench of this Court, vide order dated 01.12.2015 while adjourning the said writ petition for four weeks, directed the parties to maintain status quo. Subsequently, vide order dated 10.03.2016, the petitioners were allowed to withdraw the said writ petition with an observation that the concerned individuals, who have been proceeded under B.P.L.E. Act, 1956, would approach the appellate authority within three weeks with a further direction that the respondents would not take any coercive step for eviction of the members of the Samiti in the aforesaid period. Thereafter, some of the petitioners herein, preferred separate appeal on 30.03.2016 before the respondent no. 2, in terms with the order dated 10.03.2016 passed by a Bench of this Court passed in W.P.(C) no. 1013 of 2014. The said appeals filed on 30.03.2016 are still pending before the respondent no.2 for consideration. In the meantime, the respondent no. 4 kept on issuing notices to the petitioners for removal of the alleged encroachment from the land in question. It is further submitted that on 06.08.2016, the Forest Guard, Bhillai Pahari Campus, submitted an offence report before the respondent no.4 alleging inter alia that the petitioners have been occupying the protected forest land for the last 10-12 years. On the basis of the said prosecution report, the respondent no. 3 initiated B.P.L.E. case no. 130 of 2016, B.P.L.E. Case Nos. 136 of 2016 to B.P.L.E. Case no. 148 of 2016 and B.P.L.E. Case no. 150 of 2016 against the petitioners. The petitioners submitted their respective show cause replies, however, the respondent no. 3 vide order dated 13.10.2016, directed the petitioners to remove the alleged encroachment within a period of three weeks. Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioners have again preferred their respective appeals before the respondent no.2 on 26.10.2016. One of such memo of appeal has been annexed as Annexure-9 to the writ petition. However, the said appeals have not yet been admitted by the respondent no.2. Hence, the present writ petition has been filed.
(3.) Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and going through the relevant documents placed on record, it appears that the main reason for filing of the present writ petition by the petitioners is that the appeals preferred by them before the respondent no.2, against the order dated 13.10.2016 passed by the respondent no.3, have not yet been admitted and in the meantime, the petitioners are having continuous threat of being dispossessed from the land in question.;