The Apex Court on 09.01.2019, in HANSRAJ v MEWALAL AND ORS[1], allowed the appeal that was directed against the judgment delivered by High Court of Allahabad which had set aside the Settlement Officer Consolidation’s and Deputy Director of Consolidation’s orders while permitting the petition that was filed by the respondents .
FACTS:
The Bhumidhars of a Plot of Village were the appellant and his brother .A share belonging to the brother was sold by the brother himself in favor of the respondent by a sale deed . After the issuing of notification, the concerned village was brought the operation of the Consolidation under the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953 , wherein a provisional Consolidation Scheme was prepared by the The Assistant Consolidation Officer that proposed chaks to both the appellant and respondents upon the Plot of which the real tenure holder was the appellant whereas the co-tenure holders were the respondents through the deed of sale .
A pitch road had been constructed six years prior to the beginning of the operation connected to the Consolidation in the northern part of the Plot. Chaks were proposed by the Assistant Consolidation Officer to both the appellant as well as the respondents towards the northern side of the Plot resulting in the filing of an objection by the Respondents where the respondents contended that the chaks should be proposed as per the possession of the parties resulting in the allotting of the chaks towards the northern side to the respondents and the south side was allotted to the appellants.
Being aggrieved, the appellant filed an appeal before the Settlement Officer Consolidation where the appellant was noted as the original tenure holder while the respondents were the joint holders due to the sale deed as concluded by the Settlement Officer Consolidation.
Meanwhile, a house was being constructed by the respondent on the northern east part if the Plot with permission taken from the Settlement Officer Consolidation which eventually had to stop due to the objection raised by the appellant. Subsequently, it was held by the Settlement Officer Consolidation that the chak must be given to all who are joint holders to pitch road.
An appeal was made before the High Court wherein the appeal was allowed. A revision was also filed against the order of the Settlement Officer Consolidation.However, the order of the Settlement Officer Consolidation was affirmed by The Deputy Director, Consolidation leading to the filing of a writ petition by the respondents which was thus allowed by the learned Single Judge.
DECISION HELD BY THE APEX COURT:
When the matter was brought before the Supreme Court of India, the Apex Court while setting aside the High Court’s order and judgment and allowing the appeal and dismissing the petition of the respondents, concluded that the High Court’s order was unsustainable and that the High Court had made an error when it had allowed the writ petition by which it had restored the Consolidation Officer’s order .
[1] Full Judgment:
[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2014/6361/6361_2014_Judgement_09-Jan-2019.pdf” download=”all”]