High Court dismissed petitioner's writ petition seeking lease renewal. Court held petitioner disentitled due to decades-long failure to pay rent, failure to construct, and failure to implead the current lessee.
Writ petition dismissed; interim order vacated.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
W.P.(C) No.15581 of 2011
Somanath Shastry
…. Petitioner
Mr.H.N. Mohapatra, Advocate
-versus-
Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust and another
…. Opp. Parties Mr.Suraj Mohanty, Advocate
CORAM: THE CHIEF JUSTICE JUSTICE SAV ITRI RATHO
ORDER
Order No.
07.07.2021
“Heard.
Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that Petitioner has never been informed of any demand about his outstanding dues of ground rent and the Petitioner is willing to pay the entire outstanding dues of ground rent, if any, on demand.
In view of such statement, we direct that the Petitioner shall not be evicted from the land in question subject to
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the Petitioner depositing the ground rent dues as may be demanded by the Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust (O.P.1) till the next date. In the meantime the land in question shall not be allotted to any other person.
Urgent certified copy of this order be granted on proper application.”
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vaguely averred that the Petitioner had paid ground rent “for certain period” and that his inability to pay ground rent was only due to PPT not supplying him the relevant information on the arrears of ground rent. It has been averred in paragraph-9 of the petition that the Petitioner had applied “for renewal of lease” for a further period of 30 years, on 3rd January, 2011, i.e. two calendar months before the date of expiry. He states that he also sent a reminder on 7th May, 2011 undertaking to pay all the arrears of ground rent. In the above background, the present writ petition has been filed.
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Petitioner that it did not cooperate with him by granting approval of the construction of a hotel-cum-lodging on the leased land. It is further submitted that in view of the cancellation of lease way back in January, 1983 there was no occasion for the PPT to consider the application filed by the Petitioner on 3rd January, 2011 for renewal of lease. It is further stated by PPT that after cancellation of lease in favour of the Petitioner, the land in question was leased out to Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir (SSVM) on 24th April, 1987 and the property in question is still under SSVM’s occupation. It has been running a school there.
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consider the case of the Petitioner there for renewal of lease taking into consideration the Land Policy Guidelines of 2010. He also referred to an order dated 11th July, 2013 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) No.17991 of 2011 ( M/s. Golden Anchor Pvt. Ltd. v. Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust ). Learned counsel for the Petitioner insists that the present case is identical to the said cases.
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use the leased land for the purpose for which it was given on lease to him, the Petitioner does not appear to have been unduly concerned about not paying the ground rent even in terms of the lease deed dated 4th June 1981, for over three decades.
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KC Bisoi
(Dr. S. Muralidhar)
Chief Justice
(Savitri Ratho)
Judge
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3 issues framed by the court
Whether a lessee entitled to renewal of lease who failed to pay ground rent for over three decades and failed to construct within stipulated period.
Whether petitioner disentitled to relief given his conduct and failure to implead successful allottee.
Whether facts distinguish prior orders granting relief on similar grounds in other Paradeep Port Trust cases.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
Nilamani Moharana v. Chairman, Paradeep Port TrustDistinguished¶10
Nilamani Moharana v. Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust
M/s. Golden Anchor Pvt. Ltd. v. Chairman, Paradeep Port TrustDistinguished¶10
M/s. Golden Anchor Pvt. Ltd. v. Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust
Somanath Shastry
Chairman, Paradeep Port Trust
Savitri Ratho
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
