MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court recently directed the Thane collector to regularise the farming land of a tribal farmer that has been pending since 2009, observing that the prolonged inaction despite the release of multiple government resolutions (GRs) and a 2019 ministerial order had caused ‘grave prejudice’ to the farmer.
According to the petition, the state government had issued government resolutions (GRs) on December 27, 1978, and November 28, 1991, permitting the regularisation of encroached government lands being cultivated by tribal farmers. Even in 2007 and 2008, GRs were issued, reiterating the need for implementation of the due regularisation.
In 2009, Bhagwan Narayan Bhoir, a farmer from Kalyan who was farming on government land for decades, applied for the regularisation of his land.
In the meantime, the high court, in December 2010, passed an order in a similar public interest litigation (PIL), directing the divisional commissioners and the district collectors to publish notices to invite the claims of the encroachers and publish the list for regularisation.
Bhoir also claimed that in August 2011, the collector rejected his plea without due consideration, and subsequently, his appeal for land regularisation was also dismissed by the additional divisional commissioner.
In 2015, Bhoir filed another application before the state government. After four years of continuous follow-ups, the then revenue minister passed an order in July 2019, directing the collector to examine Bhoir’s documents. Bhoir claimed that despite the ministerial order and a report submitted by the local sub-divisional officer, the collector failed to act on the directive, compelling him to approach the high court in 2024.
{{/usCountry}}In 2015, Bhoir filed another application before the state government. After four years of continuous follow-ups, the then revenue minister passed an order in July 2019, directing the collector to examine Bhoir’s documents. Bhoir claimed that despite the ministerial order and a report submitted by the local sub-divisional officer, the collector failed to act on the directive, compelling him to approach the high court in 2024.
{{/usCountry}}On October 13, a division bench of justices Girish Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe noted that the collector’s inaction had kept the matter pending for an unreasonably long period. “The anxiety of the petitioner is that if such a decision is not taken expeditiously and as the law would mandate, the petitioner’s rights will be affected,” the bench observed, setting a deadline of six months to regularise Bhoir’s farm land.
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