Man wins land battle against government in Gujarat

A poor agricultural labourer won a battle against government officials who tried to take away his land 30 years after he bought it.

A bench of chief justice SJ Mukhopadhya and justice KM Thaker of the Gujarat high court criticised the government’s approach and set aside all orders which stated that the labourer should be evicted from the land as he had bought an agricultural land despite not being a farmer.

According to case details, Monghiben Koli sold her land in Ishwariya village in Surendrangar to Bhanji Koli, an agricultural labourer who also was into making agri-tools.

The deal was struck on  June 29, 1979 and Bhanji’s name was entered in the revenue record and he was certified as its owner in September, 1980. In 1997, 17 years after the deal was made, the deputy collector of Surendranagar district, acting on a report filed by the mamlatdar of Limbdi taluka, issued notice to Bhanji.

The notice stated that Bhanji be evicted from the land as he was not an agriculturist at the time of the transaction. The notice was then upheld by the collector, revenue secretary and even a single judge of the Gujarat high Court in 2009.

Bhanji then filed an appeal before a division bench. His counsel Nehal Joshi argued that proceedings were initiated almost 17 years after the date of transaction.

Joshi said that authorities should have acted within the limitation prescribed by the Act or within reasonable time, if limitation is not prescribed.

“In the present case this was not done,” he said.The assistant government pleader Krina Kalla on the other hand submitted that Bhanji was not an agriculturist and nor was he given any permission nor did he ask for one before buying the land.

After hearing the arguments the bench ruled that the petitioner was an agricultural labourer at the time of the deal and he bought the land for agriculture use.