DHANJIBHAI SHAMALBHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition arises under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976, which came to be repealed by the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999 (15 of 1999) (for short respectively as 'the Act' and 'the Repealing Act').

(2.) UNDER the provisions of the Act, the State Government, on finding the petitioner with an excess land, issued a Notification under Section 10 (3) of the Act on 22/12/1988. This order was questioned in appeal before the competent appellate authority under the Act, which quashed the same on 22/12/1992 and remanded the matter to the competent authority for decision afresh. In the meanwhile, it appears that on 24/07/1990, the possession of excess land was taken over. Before a decision can be taken after remand, the Repeal Act came to be enacted making the following provisions in Section 3.

(3.) RELYING upon the aforesaid provision, as also the repeal of the Act, learned Advocate for the petitioner would submit that since before repealing of the Act, the excess land could not be declared as such, an action on the part of the State Government being inchoate, the land did not vest in the State Government under Section 10 (3) of the Act, since that order was set aside by competent appellate authority and there being no saving clause, saving such inchoate action, the proceedings under the Repeal Act does not survive and, therefore, the impugned decision at Annexure ­ M dated 04/09/2003 declaring the land as excess land after the repealing Act and taking over possession, is illegal and possession is required to be restored.