IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6843 of 2011 1. Jagbir Singh S/O Late Ramprit Singh, 2. Thakur Kameshwar Prasad Singh S/o Late Mosaddi Singh, 3. Rajkishore Singh s/o Late Malik Singh, 4. Upendra Prasad Singh S/o Shri Rameshwar Narayan Singh, 5. Umesh Prasad Singh s/o Late Jogendra Prasad Singh. All residents of Village- Chechar, P.S.- Bidupur, District- Vaishali. . . . . . . Petitioners. Versus 1. The State of Bihar through the Principal Secretary, Department of Human Resources Development, Government of Bihar, Patna. 2. The Principal Secretary, Department of Human Resources Development, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. Principal Secretary, Public Health and Engineering Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 4. Director, Secondary Education, Bihar, Patna. 5. Deputy Director (Secondary Education), Department of Human Resources Development, Government of Bihar, Patna. 6. District Magistrate, Vaishali at Hajipur. 7. District Education Officer, Vaishali. 8. Circle Officer, Bidupur, Vaishali. . . . . . . Respondents. For the Petitioners : Mr. Manish Kumar, Advocate. For the State : Mr. Pushkar Narain Shahi, AAG 14 : Mr. Awanish Nandan Sinha, G.P.11 : Mr. Shubhankar Sharma, AC to G.P.11. For Intervener (I.A. No.4840 of 2011) : Mr. Ajay, Advocate. For Intervener (I.A. No.4956 of 2011) : Mr. Anil Kumar Sinha, Advocate ----------- 5/ 28.07.2011 In the instant writ application, the petitioners have prayed for commanding the respondent authorities to refrain from constructing Bidupur Multi Village Water Supply Scheme plant on the land donated for the purpose of Rajkiya Buniadi Vidyalaya, Chechar, Bidupur, Vaishali. The petitioners submit that Haribansh Narayan Sinha donated 7 Bighas, 8 Kathas and 6 Dhurs (6 Acres 24 Decimals) of land for establishment of a basic school for the benefit of public / children in the area and accordingly got the land registered in the name of Governor of Bihar vide registered deed dated 14.02.1950. A copy of the deed has been annexed as 2 Annexure-1 to this application. The petitioners submit that a basic school was accordingly constructed and at present it exists in the name of Rajkiya Buniadi Vidyalaya, Chechar, Bidupur, Vaishali. Recently the villagers including the petitioners came to learn that Additional Collector, Vaishali vide his letter no. 391 dated 25.03.2010 forwarded the file relating to transfer of land for the purpose of establishment of Multi Village Water supply scheme plant. The Commissioner, Tirhut Division, Muzaffarpur vide his letter no.2112 dated 15.04.2010 made a recommendation for free transfer of land to the Public Health and Engineering Department for establishment of Multi Village water supply scheme. The petitioners submit that the villagers of Chechar including the petitioners made a protest before the District Magistrate, Vaishali against the proposed construction of Multi Village water supply plant on 22.07.2010. The Deputy Director, Secondary Education vide his letter no. 1852 dated 01.12.2010 called for a report from the District Education Officer, Vaishali. The District Education Officer, Vaishali vide his letter no.883 dated 13.12.2010 sent his report to the Deputy Director, Secondary Education that very little ground would be available for play ground of children after transfer of the land for water plant. The petitioners also filed representation before the Principal Secretary, Human Resource Development Department on 04.01.2011. It appears from the pleading that over 436 students studies in the school. In paragraph 27 of the pleading it has been 3 stated that the school in question is a resource centre of 10 schools for extra curricular activities / sports of different Panchayats. The petitioners submit that even the concurrence of Human Resource Development Department has not been taken. The petitioners submit that the donor of the land specifically had made it clear in the deed of gift that in case the land in question is used for any other purpose, the same would revert to him or his successors. On these premises, the petitioners submit that the land of the school cannot be utilized for any other purposes other than one related to interest of school. On 09.05.2011, a Bench of this Court directed the State to explain why a playground of the school for which land had been donated was chosen as the site and what steps were made to locate the alternative site. Pursuant to the direction of this Court, a counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the State. In paragraph 5 of the counter affidavit, it has been stated that 4.93 acres of 6.24 acres of land has been used for Water Treatment Plant for providing safe drinking water to the people of locality, as excess ARSENIC in the groundwater in the area and surrounding areas were discovered after detailed survey and investigation. It has been stated that ARSENIC in drinking water beyond the permissible limit would cause severe health problems and fatal to the life such as Lung and Kidney Cancer, Acute Liver Problems, Keratosis, cardio-vascular and Neurological Problems. The counter affidavit further states 4 that the Water Treatment Plant would supply safe drinking water in the surrounding villages with 16.63 MLD capacity water supply scheme with a cost of Rs.142.42 crores. It has been stated that the plant has been approved and sanctioned by the Government and the scheme consists of several components such as “Jetty Structure” on the bank of river Ganges at village Gopalpur Chakni pipe lines underground reservoir and 19 elevated service reservoirs at different places. It has also been stated that the site in question was selected on account of non- availability of other suitable site, as no other suitable site was available for establishment of water treatment plant. Learned counsel for respondents submits that site selection process is based on several parameters including location, geography, Soil Condition, Plot area, distance from the intake structure and operation and maintenance aspects with minimum capital cost requirements etc. He submits that petitioner has no locus standi to enforce the agreement, which was executed by Haribansh Narayan Sinha, the donor of the plot, in favour of the Governor of the State. He submits that the petitioner does not even belong to the family of the donor. He further submits that the school building has remained intact and even if the land earmarked for the water plant is excluded, still 0.77 acres of land would remain as play ground for the school children. Two interlocutory applications bearing I.A. No. 4840 of 2011 and 4956 of 2011 have been filed in this writ 5 application. I.A. No. 4840 of 2011 has been filed by Mukhiya of Chechar Panchayat supporting the stand of the State. As the State has already represented its case, I do not see any reason for allowing I.A. No. 4840 of 2011 and it is, accordingly, rejected. I.A. No. 4956 of 2011 has been filed on behalf of Kamalnath Narain Singh and Triambak Narain Singh, descendants of the donor of the plot in question. They submit that as per the conditions in the gift deed, the land cannot be put to use to any different purpose other than one mentioned in the gift deed concerned. He submits that if liberty is granted, he would file a separate writ application challenging the setting up the water treatment plant and for a direction to the authorities to strictly conform to the conditions mentioned in the deed of gift. In my view, the intervenor respondents if so advised may file a separate writ application. I.A. No. 4956 of 2011 is disposed of with the aforesaid liberty to the intervenor respondents. As the petitioner in this case does not belong to the family of the donor and explanations have been given for selecting the site in question for establishment of Water Treatment Plant, due to non-availability of an alternative site, I would not like to go into the merit of the rival claims, in view of the submissions of learned counsel for heirs of donor that an independent writ application would be filed challenging the action of putting the land of school to other purpose. This writ application is disposed of in terms of the 6 observations given herein above. Uday/ (Samarendra Pratap Singh, J.)