Dismissed

Suraj Kumar v. Principal Secretary Forest and Others

Uttarakhand HC26 Dec 2013WPMS/602/2011

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

The court dismissed a writ petition where the petitioner claimed Forest land as his private property. The court held that challenging a 1970 declaration or subsequent encroachment after over 40 years was highly belated and involved disputed facts unsuitable for writ adjudication.

What did the court decide?

The writ petition is dismissed; the petitioner may move State Authorities for other reliance.

Suraj Kumar Vs Principal Secretary Forest and Others — Property and Title | Uttarakhand HC (2013)

¶1

IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition (M/S) No. 602 of 2011

¶2

Suraj Kumar … Petitioner

¶3

¶4

Principal Secretary Forest & others … Respondents

¶5

Mr. Siddharth Singh, Advocate, present for the petitioner Mr. Ashish Joshi, Standing Counsel, present for the State of Uttarakhand

¶6

Hon’ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral)

¶7

The petitioner claims certain Forest land to be his property, which has already been declared as a Reserved Forest Area as far back as in the year 1970 by a Government Order dated 21.12.1970 under Section 20 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

¶8

The petitioner does not even challenge the notification, all he says is that the Forest Authorities have now encroached upon his private land on the basis of notification dated 21.12.1970.

¶9

It is too late to challenge either the notification dated 21.12.1970 or the activity of the Government which was done more than 40 years back. The claim of the petitioner also, however, rest on a Government Order dated 26.03.2009 of the Divisional Forest Officer, Dehradun, which is annexure 5 to the writ petition wherein the concerned officer states that particular area of land which is being claimed by the petitioner to be his own land though it comes inside the pillar of the Forest. Apart from that the matter being highly belated and it also involves an appreciation of disputed question of fact which presently cannot be done in the present writ petition. Moreover, it is

¶10

¶11

extremely stale, as the action of the Forest Authorities pertaining to the year 1970, is under challenge before this Court.

¶12

However, in case, the petitioner is relying upon certain orders of the Government, including the order of Divisional Forest Officer dated 26.03.2009 or any other order, he may still move the State Authorities but the relief as claimed by him cannot be granted in a writ petition. The writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed.

¶13

(Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.)

¶14

26.12.2013 Aswal

Suraj Kumar v. Principal Secretary Forest and Others

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Suraj Kumar v. Principal Secretary Forest and Others

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

A compact analysis

Issues for consideration

Statutes considered

Parties & counsel

Coram

Case details

Similar cases

Rohit Panwar Vs District Magistrate, U.s. Nagar and Others

Parag Pundir Vs Vice - Chancellor, I.m.s., Unison University, Dehradun and Others

Madhur Sharma and Others Vs The Director, Institute Of Management Studies Unison University, Dehradun and Others

Pawan Kumar Bora and Others Vs Om Prakash and Others

Ram Mahesh Vs State Of Uttarakhand and Others

Vivek Tagra Vs State Of Uttarakhand and Others