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TITLE : Rahibai Laxman Lokhande & Ors. V State of Maharashtra

CITATION : W.P No 7400 of 2023

CORAM : Hon’ble justice Madhav J. Jamdar

DATE: 5^th December, 2023

INTRODUCTION :

The challenge in the present Writ Petition is to the legality and validity of the order dated 18th April 2023 passed by the District Superintendent of Land Records in Appeal.

FACTS :

The contesting Respondents that the Writ Petition be not entertained in view of the availability of the alternate remedy. He submitted that there is Appeal provided under Section 247 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.

Section 247 provides that, an appeal shall lie from any decision or order passed by a revenue or survey office specified in column 1 of the Schedule E under this Code or any other law for the time being in force to the officer specified in column 2 of that Schedule whether or not such decision or order may itself have been passed on appeal from the decision of order of the officer specified in column 1 of the said Schedule: Provided that, in no case the number of appeals shall exceed two.

The Petitioners contend that the impugned order itself has been passed in Appeal and therefore, the Second Appeal is not competent under Section 247 of the said Code.

COURT’S ANALYSIS

The court held that Section 247 of the said Code very clearly specifies that two Appeals are competent and the Appellate Authorities are described in Schedule E.

Accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed in view of availability of the alternate remedy of statutory Appeal under Section 247 of the said Code, with no order as to costs. It is clarified that the Petitioners can file the Appeal as contemplated under Section 247 of the said Code challenging the impugned order.

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Written by- Sanjana Ravichandran

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Title: NAMDEO APPARAO CHATE AND ORS. v. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH ITS SECRETARY AND ORS.

Decided on: 26th July, 2023

+ WRIT PETITION NO. 6598 OF 2023

CORAM: RAVINDRA V. GHUGE, & Y. G. KHOBRAGADE, JJ.

Facts of the Case:

The petitioners have challenged the Awards dated 17.07.2015, 24.07.2015, 10.07.2015 and 02.06.20105, respectively by filing different petitions on 02.05.2023, which is practically after eight years.

Issues

Whether the High Court should dismiss the petitions because the other statutory remedies have not been exhausted?

Contentions

The petitioners contend that since they have not accepted the Awards delivered under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition (Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Act, 2013, they can take recourse to the statutory, efficacious and expeditious remedy under Section 64 of the Act. It is a settled position of law that all the grounds can be raised under the said proceedings

The Respondents contend that the petitioners had approached this Court after eight years of the passing of the Awards, by avoiding the statutory remedy under Section 64. There is no reason set out as to why this Court should entertain these petitions directly. It was also not the contention of the petitioners that the statutory remedy is neither efficacious nor expeditious. No element of urgency had been made out in order to convince this Court to exercise jurisdiction. They relied on many judgments of the past to establish that the Court should dismiss these petitions because, there are other statutory remedies available.

Decision

The Court held that the High Court has jurisdiction to decide whether to allow the petitions or not. There have been instances where, the High Court has allowed petitions although other statutory remedies were not exhausted. Alternate remedy is not a bar and therefore, the HC has allowed these petitions.

Written by- Aparna Gupta, University Law College & Dept. of Studies in Law

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