Gjanan Kamlya Patil vs Addl.Collector & Comp.Auth.(Ulc) & Ors

3. We may, for the disposal of these appeals, refer to the facts in Civil Appeal arising out of Special Leave Petition No.14690 of 2011, treating the same as the leading case. The Appellant herein was issued a notice dated 17.2.2005 under Section 10(5) of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (for short ‘ULC Act’) for taking possession of the Appellant’s land bearing Survey Nos.47/10 and 54/4. It was stated in the notice that in accordance with the notification published in Part-I, Page No. – Konkan Division Supplementary, dated 12.12.2002, in the Gazette of Maharashtra, the land notified had been vested in the Government of Maharashtra and that Additional Collector and Competent Authority, Thane (for short “Competent Authority”), had been authorized by the State Government to take possession of the land in question, details of which had been published in the notification under Section 10(3) and the land be handed over or possession be given within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice. Further, it was also intimated that if the Appellant had failed to give possession of the land, necessary action would be taken for taking possession by application of necessary force.

5. The High Court after examining the provisions of the ULC Act as well as the provisions of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999, and also taking note of the affidavit filed by the State Government and by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) noticed that so far as Survey No.47/10 is concerned, the possession had not been taken over by MMRDA. However, as far as land in Survey No.54/4 was concerned, after noticing that possession had been taken over, the High Court disposed of the Petition granting relief to the Appellant in respect of Survey no.47/10, but so far as Survey No.54/4 is concerned, as already indicated, the Appellant was granted liberty to move the Civil Court for establishing his claim over the property in question.

8. We may, at the outset, point out that almost all the legal issues urged before us stand covered by the judgment of the this Court in Hari Ram (supra). However, reference to few facts is necessary for the disposal of these appeals. The Competent Authority published a notification dated 17.1.2000 under Section 10(1) of the ULC Act in the Gazette of Government of Maharashtra on 15.6.2000, wherein the land held by the Appellant was shown as the land to be acquired by the Government of Maharashtra. Following that, a notification dated 14.3.2000 under Sub-Section (3) of Section 10 of the ULC Act was published notifying the public that the land shown in the schedule therein is covered and the land in Survey No.54/4 as well would be considered to be acquired by the Government of Maharashtra w.e.f. 15.6.2000 and the said land would be vested with the Government of Maharashtra from the said date.

section (3), no person shall transfer by way of sale, mortgage, gift or otherwise, any excess vacant land, specified in the notification and any such transfer made in contravention of the Act shall be deemed to be null and void. Further, it also says that no person shall alter or cause to be altered the use of such excess vacant land. Therefore, from the date of publication of the notification under sub-section (1) and ending with the date specified in the declaration made in sub-section (3), there is no question of disturbing the possession of a person, the possession, therefore, continues to be with the holder of the land.

Peaceful dispossession

Forceful dispossession

14. The Appeals are, accordingly, allowed. However, there shall be no order as to costs.