Patna High Court
Seema KumariversusThe State of Bihar
- Decided
- Disposal
- DISPOSED
- Bench
- RANA VIKRAM SINGH
Holding
The Court directed the respondents to dispose of the land settlement matter within eight weeks and ordered the petitioners to file fresh representations if necessary.
Summary
A group of landless Scheduled Caste families residing on a piece of Kaiser-i-Hind land petitioned the Patna High Court for a direction to settle the land in their favour under the I.H.S.D.P. Scheme. They alleged that despite a 2010 letter from the Additional Collector requesting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Executive Engineer, the NOC had not been issued, causing undue delay in house construction. The State argued that the matter was still pending before the competent authority and the petition was misconceived. The Court observed that the respondents had neglected their statutory duties and that the petitioners' right to housing under government welfare schemes was being frustrated. Consequently, the Court directed all respondents, including the Executive Engineer, to resolve the matter within eight weeks and instructed the petitioners to file fresh representations if their earlier ones could not be located.
Issues considered
- Whether the respondents, particularly the Executive Engineer, are obligated to issue a No Objection Certificate for land settlement under the I.H.S.D.P. Scheme.
- Whether the writ petition seeking a direction for land settlement is maintainable.
- Whether the petitioners should be directed to approach the concerned authority again for fresh representation.
Subjects
- land settlement
- landless
- Scheduled Caste
- No Objection Certificate
- I.H.S.D.P. Scheme
- government negligence
- writ petition
- civil writ jurisdiction
Judgment
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.9963 of 2026
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1. Seema Kumari, Wife of Hakikat Kumar
2. Shobha Kumari, Wife of Nasihat Kumar
3. Raj Nandani Kumari, Wife of Nasihat Kumar
4. Geeta Kumari, Wife of Jugal Prasad
5. Kusum Devi, Wife of Nand Kumar Ram
6. Nirmal Prasad, Son of Surat Prasad
7. Madan Kumar Sharma, Son of Shushil Kumar Sharma
8. Lata Devi, Wife of Niranjan Sharma
9. Maya Devi, Wife of Amar Sharma
10. Radhika Devi, Wife of Ashwani Sharma
11. Lalsa Devi, Wife of Surendra Yadav
12. Priti Devi, Wife of Pappu Yadav
13. Ranju Devi, Wife of Lakshman Ram
14. Ram Avtar Ram, Son of Late Yogendra Ram
15. Kumar Pankaj, Son of Lakshman Ram
16. Sushil Kumar Ram, Son of Mahendra Prasad Ram
17. Radhika Devi, Wife of Gorakh Ram
18. Santoshi Devi, wife of Sanjay Kumar Thakur
19. Urmila Devi, Wife of Yogendra Prasad
20. Dhanji Sah, Son of Bhutali Sah
21. Shiv Kumar Ram, Son of Bhagwati Ram
22. Sita Devi, Wife of Yogendra Ram
23. Priyanka Devi, Wife of Jagjiwan Ram
24. Krishna Devi, Wife of Pramod Sharma
25. Pramod Kumar, son of Ganesh Ram
26. Punam Devi, Wife of Rakesh Kumar
27. Minta Devi, Wife of Sapahi Lathor
28. Gunjan Kumari, Wife of Rajendra Prasad Rathor
29. Rani Devi, wife of Guddu Kumar
30. Rajesh Kumar Paswan, son of Somaru Bhagat
31. Kunti Devi, wife of Kanta Ram
32. Sursasi Devi, Wife of Kamlesh Sah
33. Vinayak Prasad, Son of Late Kariman Prasad
34. Kanchan Guriya, Wife of Rajan Rajak
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35. Rani Devi, Wife of Raju Rajak
36. Rubi Kumari, Wife of Pappu Rajak
37. Kanchan Devi, wife of Sudama Lal Ravi
38. Asha Devi, Wife of Sitaram Ravi
39. Raju Ram, Son of Bhagawati Ram
40. Rina Paswan, Wife of Gagandeo Shambhu Chaudhary
41. Markandey Chaudhary, son of Shambhu Chaudhary
42. Rahul Kumar, son of Yogendra Prasad Thakur
43. Sushila Devi, Wife of Jitendra Kumar Paswan
44. Savita Devi, Wife of Bablu Yadav
45. Sunaina Devi, Wife of Gopal Prasad
46. Chandan Kumar, son of Gopal Prasad
47. Anita Devi, Wife of Kaushal Kishor Azad
48. Bindeshwar Prasad, Son of Hari Govind Das
49. Satyendra Kumar, son of Kishun Paswan
50. Shilu Devi, wife of Jitendra Kumar
51. Kanchan Devi, Wife of Jitendra Kumar
52. Dharmendra Kumar, son of Hiralal Ram
53. Shivji Ram Ravi, son of Yamina Ram Ravi
54. Hira Lal Ram, Son of Kalkati Ram
55. Vishwanath Prasad, son of Ramrup Ram
56. Kaveri Kumari, Wife of Dharmendra Kumar
57. Pushpa Devi, wife of Sant Prasad
58. Puja Kumari, wife of Sumant Kumar
59. Akleshwari Kumari, Wife of Gorakh Ram
60. Jai Prakash Ram, wife of Yogendra Ram
61. Rekha Devi, Wife of Umesh Thakur
62. Dharmshila Devi, wife of Krishna Prasad
63. Avinash Prasad, Son of Late Muni Lal
All are residents of Mohalla- Ambedkar Colony, Ward No. 16 (Pakari), P.S.-
Ara Nawada, District-Bhojpur, Ara.
... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
1. The State of Bihar through the Principal Secretary, Revenue and Land
Reforms Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna.
2. The Commissioner, Patna Division, Patna.
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3. The District Magistrate, Bhojpur, Ara.
4. The Additional District Magistrate-cum-Secretary, District Urban
Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara.
5. The D.C.L.R., Bhojpur, Ara.
6. The Circle Officer, Ara Sadar.
7 The Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Circle, Ara, Bhojpur.
... ... Respondent/s
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Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Dhirendra Singh, Adv.
For the State : Mr. AC to GP-27
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RANA VIKRAM SINGH
ORAL JUDGMENT
Date : 09-07-2026
At the very outset, the learned counsel appearing
on behalf of the petitioners seeks permission to implead the
Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara as
respondent No. 7 in the present writ application during the
course of the day.
2. Permission is granted.
3. Heard the learned counsel for the respective
parties.
4. The petitioners have approached this Court with
a solitary relief for issuing a direction to the respondents herein
for settlement of the land in their favour as they are landless
persons on the strength of a letter dated 26.02.2010 issued by
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the Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary, District Urban
Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara.
5. It is the further case of the petitioners that they
hail from Scheduled Caste category and being landless, they
have been residing upon the piece of land, appertaining to Thana
No. 236, Khata No. 377, Khesra No. 1363/2147 and Mauja-
Pakari, for the last several years. It is pointed out that the land
on which the petitioners have been residing is Kaiser-i-Hind
land.
6. On the representations of the petitioners for
settlement of the land by issuing a Basgit Parcha in their favour,
the respondent No. 4, i.e., the Additional Collector-Cum-
Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara,
vide Letter No. 10 dated 26.02.2010, requested respondent No.
7, i.e., the Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division,
Bhojpur at Ara, that in view of the report of the Circle Officer,
Ara Sadar (respondent No. 6) for implementation of I.H.S.D.P.
Scheme related to construction of houses for the landless
persons, the No Objection Certificate is required and
considering the aforesaid aspect of the matter, necessary
directions be issued at the earliest.
7. As evident from the preceding paragraph, the
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Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary, District Urban
Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara (respondent No. 4) vide
Letter No. 10 dated 26.02.2010 wrote a letter to the Executive
Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara with a
request to issue No Objection Certificate for the land which is
situated near Ambedkar colony as this land has been selected for
constructing houses for the landless/poor persons under the
I.H.S.D.P. Scheme since this land is registered in the name of
Public Works Department. The Additional Collector-Cum-
Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara
has written this letter (Annexure-P/1 to the writ application) in
view of the report, as contained in Letter No. 118 dated
01.02.2010, submitted by the Circle Officer, Ara Sadar
(respondent No. 6).
8. The learned counsel for the petitioners contends
that since 2010 till date, the matter is still pending before the
concerned respondent for issuance of No Objection Certificate
and in absence of the same, the petitioners have been waiting for
their houses to be constructed under the aforesaid scheme by the
Government.
9. The petitioners have also filed various
representations before all the concerned respondents, but till
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date, no action has been taken by them and they are simply
sitting over the matter without discharging their statutory duty,
which they are saddled with.
10. The learned AC to GP-27 appearing on behalf
of the State submits that since the matter of the petitioners are
related to settlement of land for construction of houses and the
matter is still pending before the competent authority for
issuance of No Objection Certificate, the petitioners may be
directed to approach the concerned authority again and in this
view of the matter, this writ application appears to be
misconceived.
11. Annexure-P/1 appended to the writ application
indisputably evince that considering the representations of the
petitioners on account of them being landless, hailing from the
Scheduled Caste category, the Additional Collector-Cum-
Secretary, District Urban Development Authority, Bhojpur, Ara
requested the Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division,
Bhojpur at Ara for issuance of No Objection Certifcate for the
land upon which the respondents have decided to construct the
houses for the landless persons/the petitioners under the
I.H.S.D.P. Scheme.
12. The Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary
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written the said letter in the year 2010 with a request to the
Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara
for issuance of No Objection Certificate at the earliest. The said
letter is based on the report of the Circle Officer, Ara Sadar
(respondent No. 6), a copy of which has also been annexed
therewith.
13. It further appears that on account of pendency
of the matter relating to issuance of No Objection Certificate at
the level of Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division,
Bhojpur at Ara, the petitioners’ fate are hanging in balance as
they are still residing on that piece of land in a makeshift
arrangement with the hope and trust that under the I.H.S.D.P.
Scheme, they will have a dwelling house, so constructed at the
cost of the Government.
14. The social welfare schemes of the government
are aimed at providing amenities to the landless/poor persons,
who are also citizen of the country, having equal right as
guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The governmental
schemes for providing dwelling houses to the landless/poor
persons seems to met a dead-end on account of callous,
indifferent and reckless approach of the government officers,
who are entrusted with the duty of executing and implementing
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the government schemes. The case at hand is one of the most
glaring and shocking example of the same wherein the
construction of the houses of the landless/poor persons have
been stalled on account of the sheer negligence of the
respondent officers, who are not only frustrating the welfare
schemes of the government, but also causing immense
sufferings to the landless/poor persons.
15. The conduct of the respondent/Executive
Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara does not
appear to be legally plausible and it seems that he has scant
regard for the letters written by the competent authority, like that
of the Additional Collector of the District, who is simply
requesting him to issue a No Objection Certificate in view of the
report so submitted by the concerned Circle Officer.
16. It is a settled principle that holding the position
of power often comes with onerous responsibility, which the
person is under an obligation, in the law, to discharge in
consonance with the settled legal principles and not as per their
whims and fancies.
17. Thus, this writ application is disposed off with
a direction to all the concerned respondents including the
Executive Engineer, Shahabad Road Division, Bhojpur at Ara;
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the Additional Collector-Cum-Secretary, District Urban
Development Authority, Bhojpur at Ara as well as the Collector-
Cum-District Magistrate, Bhojpur at Ara to dispose off this
matter as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of
eight weeks from the date of this order, so far it relates to the
issues raised by the petitioners in their representations filed
before them.
18. If the representations filed by the petitioners
could not be traced in the office(s) of the concerned
respondents, the petitioners shall, again, file a detailed
representation(s), enclosing all the documents which have been
annexed herewith, within a period of two weeks henceforth, for
their perusal and necessary action thereof, within the stipulated
time as directed hereinabove.
19. With the aforesaid observation/direction, the
writ petition stands disposed off.
20. The interlocutory application(s), if any, also
stands disposed off accordingly.
(Rana Vikram Singh, J)
Praveen-II/-
AFR/NAFR NAFR
CAV DATE N/A
Uploading Date 13.07.2026
Transmission Date N/A
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