ANAND NIKETAN ASHRAM Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN view of the death of the learned advocate for the petitioner, notice was sent to the petitioner as per our order dated 26th November, 2008. The endorsement on the cause list, however, indicates that the notice is not received back. In view of the above, ordinarily, we would have been required to adjourn the hearing. However, we find from the affidavits-in-reply filed by the Deputy Collector, Rehabilitation Department, Kadana and other Schemes and the Deputy Collector, Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation, Kadana and other Projects dated 2nd November, 2004 and 10th August, 2007 requesting that for all practical purposes, the grievance voiced in the petition has been redressed by the State Government.

(2.) THE lands belonging to about 166 tribals in Panchmahals District named in Annexure-I to the memo of the petition were acquired by the State Government for certain irrigation projects. The land users and their families i. e. about 166 families were, therefore, rehabilitated at Kaliavav, Taluka Godhra, District Panchmahals by allotting other lands. The allotments were made in the year 1981. It, however, so happened that the lands allotted to the petitioner were forest lands and, therefore, the State Government had made allotment of the said lands in anticipation of the sanction of the Central Government under Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Accordingly, the concerned families resettled on the above lands and also constructed their houses and started cultivating the lands allotted to them. Subsequently, however, the Central Government declined to grant the sanction and, therefore, the concerned Deputy Collectors passed impugned orders on 03rd October, 1988 requiring the concerned families to vacate the lands allotted to them in the year 1981. The petitioner, thereafter, filed the present petition in September, 1989.

(3.) WHILE admitting the petition, interim relief was granted restraining the respondents from implementing the aforesaid orders of eviction. The Deputy Conservator of Forest, Godhra, District Panchmahals was also restrained from evicting the allottees from the plots of land allotted to them.