IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.7376 of 2008 PRAVEEN KUMAR MISHRA Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- For the Petitioner : Mr. Shailesh Kumar, Advocate For the Respondents : Mr. N.K.Sinha, Additional Advocate General-X Mr. Md. Anis Akhtar, Junior Counsel to Additional Advocate General-X -------------- P R E S E N T Hon'ble the Chief Justice & Hon'ble Mr. Justice Kishore K. Mandal ------------- Dated, the 5th August, 2008. By means of this petition in the nature of public interest, the petitioner seeks enforcement and implementation of the Government Notification dated 15th March, 2004. In sum and substance the prayer of the petitioner is that the process of consolidation under Section 3 of the Bihar Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956 ought to have commenced immediately after issuance of the Notification dated 15th March, 2004 and completed by this time. Having not done that, the respondents may be directed to complete the process of consolidation under Section 3 of the Act of 1956 without delay. 2. In response to the writ petition, a counter affidavit has been filed by respondent nos. 1 to 6. In paragraphs 8 and - 2 - 9 of the counter affidavit, the following statements have been made: - “8. That it is stated here that due to paucity of workforce/staff all the villages notified u/s 3 of the Consolidation Act 1956, could not be taken up at once and therefore, it has been started in phase wise manner and till date work in 8 chakbandi Anchals spread over five Districts namely 1. Ramgrah, Kudra (Kaimur) 2. Dawath, Nokha (Rohtas), 3. Buxar Sadar, Rajpur (Buxar), 4. Arrah Sadar (Bhojpur), 5. Katya (Gopalganj) where work prior to closure was in as advanced stage are being actively persued by the department, with work force from other chakbandi Anchal. 9. That it is relevant to mention here that a proposal has been drawn up to re-start Chakbandi proceeding in all the 38 Anchals of Shahabad region i.e. Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur districts as well as 12 Anchals of Gopalganj. The said proposal has been approved by the department of Revenue and land Reforms and has been forwarded to the department of planning and development for approval of the high level committee. As soon as the approval of the high level committee of the Govt. is accorded, steps would be taken for posting of Officers and appointment of personnel as well as allocation of funds for the said purpose.” 3. It is, thus, seen that the State Government does not deny that the notification dated 15th March, 2004 has to be complied with and consolidation of the holdings under Section 3 of the Act of 1956 is to be done in all 38 districts of the State. However, the entire exercise does not seem to have been completed because of diverse reasons, such as, paucity of staff etc. 4. The counsel for the State submits that it is not possible for the State to commence consolidation process under Section 3 of the Act of 1956 in all districts at one time. According to him, it is possible only phase-wise. - 3 - 5. In view of the available material that has come on record, we are satisfied that the writ petition may be disposed of by the following order: - (i) The consolidation process under Section 3 of the Bihar Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956, in all the districts of the State of Bihar, phase-wise or otherwise shall be completed as early as possible and in no case later than 31st December, 2010. (ii) Six monthly progress report in this connection shall be sent by the Director, consolidation, Bihar, Patna to the Registrar General of this Court. First of such report shall be sent on or before 5th February, 2009. 6. We order accordingly. R. M. Lodha, CJ Kishore K. Mandal, J Pawan/-