MP High Court Restrains Authorities From Demolishing Property By Giving Less Than A Day’s Notice

After hearing the parties, Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh held that it would only be fair if the Petitioner was given reasonable time to file his objections before the appropriate authorities -

Hence, the petition is disposed off with directions to the respondents that they will provide relevant papers with regard to demarcation of the land in question to the petitioners within 3 days and thereafter, petitioners will file their reply before the competent authority/ respondent no.2 within 10 days and thereafter, respondent no.2 will pass appropriate order in accordance with law after considering the reply submitted by the petitioners. In the meantime, respondents will not demolish the construction in dispute said to be made on the encroached land bearing survey no.442 ad-measuring 0.066 hectares situated at Village Nimthur, Tehsil Bhanpura, District Mandsaur. It is further directed that respondents will not take any coercive action against the petitioners after passing of the said order for 7 days and provide reasonable time to the petitioners to approach the competent authority.

The Petitioner was served upon a notice by the Respondent Authority regarding the demolition of his property allegedly constructed on government land. The notice was served on 28.12.2022 at 6:45 pm and the Petitioner was required to file his reply by the next morning itself, failing which, the property would’ve been demolished on 29.12.2022. Aggrieved, the Petitioner moved the Court.

The Petitioner submitted before the Court that he was being victimized for filing an election petition against the sitting MLA of the ruling party. It was argued that the contents of the notice made it clear that the same was served owing to political reasons, without granting proper opportunity to the Petitioner to file his reply. Thus, it was prayed that the impugned notice be quashed.

Per contra, the State argued that the property concerned was constructed upon government land and therefore, the said notice was issued and the Petitioner was provided an opportunity to file his reply. Therefore, it was submitted that the Petitioner was not entitled for any relief.

Examining the submissions of parties and documents on record, the Court found it fit to restrain the State from taking any coercive action against the Petitioner before granting him reasonable opportunity to approach the appropriate authority-

It is apparent from the record that the show cause notice dated 27.12.2022 was served upon to the petitioners on 28.12.2022 at about 6:45 p.m. and they were directed to file their reply on the very next day i.e. 29.12.2022 stating therein that otherwise the construction in question will be demolished. It is mentioned in the notice itself that petitioners are in possession of the land in dispute for last 10 years. In these circumstances, it appears appropriate to give some reasonable time to the petitioners to file the reply and till then the respondents is required to restrained from demolishing the construction in question.

With the aforesaid observations, the petition was disposed of.