Bombay HC tells Maharashtra chief secretary to direct collectors to take steps to protect government lands

The Court deprecated the ‘negligent conduct’ of the Mumbai Suburban collector in pursuing the issue.

It also directed the Suburban collector to inspect the plot concerned within eight weeks and submit a report on the same.

The petitioner had argued that the said land was reserved for a garden but various kinds of illegal structures such as a garage had come up and even third-party rights were being created.

The HC in August 2018 had noticed that the plot in question belonged to the state and had passed an order requiring the government to inform as to what steps it had proposed for freeing it from encroachment.

In April 2019, the government had submitted that the encroachments on the said land would be removed by the end of June that year. The bench noted that certain steps were taken by the collector’s office for the removal of encroachments.

However, one Sabhajeet Sharma had filed a suit against the said action, interim relief for which was rejected by the trial court. He was granted protection for filing an appeal before the HC. In November 2020, the Court removed the matter from the list after the state lawyer submitted that it would file an application in Sharma’s appeal seeking to vacate interim relief granted to Sharma.

On Thursday, on the Court’s query, Additional Government Pleader (AGP) Abhay L Patki informed that no such application had even been made.

“A period of about three years and six months has elapsed since then (November 2020), however, no effort appears to be in sight on behalf of the State-respondents… Such a situation cannot be appreciated on any count. Admittedly, the land in question is government land and the office of Collector is the custodian of the State property which ultimately belongs to the people,” the HC noted.

After AGP Patki assured the bench that the requisite application in the pending appeal would be filed within a week, the bench asked to file an affidavit stating the steps taken by the collector’s office to comply with the directions.

The Court posted further hearings to April 24.